Deranged Banshee
by SpiritWeaver
Summary: REPOSTED! When Blaise is dared to ask Hermione out on a date, but she learns of her secret and has some plans of her own. Chaos erupts in Hogwarts. Embarrassment, fires, secrets, and fights. Will Hogwarts survive?
1. The Dare

Disclaimer: I don't own HP.

And this is my first Blaise and Hermione fic! Go me!

**Deranged Banshee**

**The Dare**

"Okay. Blaise, you have to take the mudblood out on a date. That is your dare." Said Draco, smirking. The others hooted and Blaise frowned.

"Fine." He said challengingly. Though he didn't have much of a choice, it was either do the dare or tell Snape he liked him.

The two Gryfinndors slowly backed away from their hiding spot where they had been spying and ran to tell Hermione.

PAGE BREAK

"Are you sure?" asked the brunette, looking her two best girl friends, Ginny and Andrea, in the eye.

The girls nodded vigorously. "We swear."

Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Hermione." Said Ginny slowly, "I think you should say yes."

"What!"

"Think about it. He obviously thinks you'll refuse and he won't be able to go through with it..."

"Which means he'll keep trying and never leave you alone, since it's a dare. And he has his ego, so he'll be relentless you know..." added Andrea.

"So if you want to get him off your back. You should tell him yes. This also gives you a chance to mess with his head a little."

Hermione grinned. "I'm liking the sound of that."

"It's on." Said Ginny, all three girls smiliing smugly.

PAGE BREAK

The three friends were in the dormitory. Ginny and Andrea were helping Hermione get ready.

"Okay, when he asks you you say yes."

"But what about Harry and Ron?" said Hermione, getting nervous.

Andrea waved her hands. "Don't worry about them. I'll be there with you so I can keep them occupied."

"Well, okay."

"Good, its settled then."

"Now then, when you walk into potions with him be completely natural, if he knows we know then our plan is ruined." Piped up the redhead.

Hermione nodded. "Let the games begin."

PAGE BREAK – THE NEXT MORNING

Hermione walked into potions, Andrea following her lead.

"Hey Hermione!" Said Harry! "I haven't seen you all day. Where were you."

"I woke up late." She explained, taking a seat next to the boy. "Where's Ron?"

" 'Sick'." Said Harry, making quotation marks in the air. Hermione laughed.

Harry greeted Andrea and then the class began. Hermione couldn't help but feel Blaises eyes on her.

While Snape was rambling on about healing potions, Hermione chanced a glance in his direction. He was taking notes. She let out a slow sigh and went back to listening, trying to concentrate on remembering the uses that the professor was listing.

When the class was over the three friends stood up and began to walk toward the doorway.

"Hey, hey Granger!" Yelled someone. The three turned to find Blaise walking over to them, Draco watching.

"What do you want?" Snapped Harry.

"I need to talk to you. In private." Added the boy, gesturing toward the bookworm.

"Whatever you need to say to her you can say in front of all of us." Growled Harry protectively.

Andrea rolled her eyes. "Harry, shes not a little kid. She'll be fine." Said Andrea, pulling Harry reluctantly away from the two and giving Hermione what she hoped would be interpreted as en encouraging nod.

Hermione turned to the Slytherin. "What is it Blaise?"

The Slytherin cleared his throat. "I've been watching you."

"Watching me?" Asked Hermione.

Blaise rolled his eyes. "Not in a creepy 'I'm watching you' stalking sort of way. I've just...I've noticed you."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. And I was wondering. If, well, maybe you'd like to go out with me sometime. I mean, it's totally cool if you say no. I'll completely understand." The Slytherin added quickly.

Hermione plastered a huge grin on her face. "I would love to go out with you!" She declared happily, throwing her arms around him.

Blaise's mouth hung open, aghast. "Are, are you sure this is what you want?"

"Oh yes! Definetely!"

"Okay then." He squeaked. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Wonderful. I wonder where we should do? I know," She said, not giving the Slytherin a chance to answer, "tomorrow is a Hogsmeade visit right? We can go to that cute little Italian restaurant that just opened up."

Blaise paled. That place was expensive. "I don't know if that's-"

"Nonsense it's perfect! Oh I'm so excited! I'll see you tomorrow. Meet me in the entrance hall. Gotta go." She said as the bell rang, signaling the start of the next class.

Blaise glared and stalked over to Malfoy. "You." He growled.

Malfoy was standing there, leaning against the desk and laughing. "Good going. I'm so jealous." He joked.

"I can't believe you guys are making me do this."

Malfoy grinned mockingly. "Better make sure you have something to wear for you date with Granger tomorrow."

Blaise muttered something like a curse under his breath and stalked off.

"What was all that about?" Asked Harry, a confused expression on his face. The girl was whispering something excitedly to Andrea who grinned impishly.

"Just girl stuff." They answered together.

"Whatever." Harry sighed.

**Soooo...whadcha think? PLEASE REVIEW!**


	2. Too Special for Wordsor too Scary

**SpiritWeaver's back! I probably made you all faint from shock of me updating this. (nervous laugh). Please don't hurt me! See I updated at least…?**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter, I wouldn't be putting this up here, would I?**

**Deranged Banshee**

**Too Special For Words…Or Too Scary**

Blaise paced around his bed, his mind deep in thought. In one hour, he had a date with the mudbloo-no, Granger. He'd have to remember not to call her that on their date. The one he was currently using every ounce of his brainpower to try and figure a way out of. So far he had come up with three possible solutions.

He could fake sick. But Draco, who knew him better than anyone, would probably know he was faking.

He could use an invisibility charm on all his clothes and claim that someone had stolen them. But he didn't know how to change them back and he didn't want to go around wearing the same set of clothes everyday or walking around the castle "naked." That was gross.

He could hide out in the castle somewhere, though with his luck he'd run into someone who knew about the whole 'ask the Gryfinndor on a date' thing. Still, it was worth a shot. Grabbing his wand quickly off the bedside table, he walked quickly out of the dormitory and down to the common room. His heart gave a leap of hope as he saw no one but a few students who were skipping class, most of whom he didn't even know. So far, so good. He walked to the portrait nonchalantly with a 'It's good, it's cool.' kind of attitude. He even smoothed back his hair, very coolly mind you, for good measure, before stepping out.

"Hey Blaise!" Chirped a voice the second he stepped out of the portrait hole.

The Slytherin shrieked and jumped about a foot in the air. "You…how…here…?" He spluttered.

"Yup! I'm here!" The girl laughed. "Aren't you excited?!" She asked, grabbing his right hand and jumping up and down excitedly, paying no attention to the fact that his warm would probably be yanked out of its socket.

He wrenched his hand out of her grasp. "Uhh…"

Hermione frowned. "You mean you're not excited about our date?" She yelled very loudly, sobbing pitifully into her hands.

"What…no…of course I am!" He said quickly as people started to stop their journey 

through the corridors to openly stare at them.

"No you're not! I'll just go!"

'Yes!' thought Blaise, giving a mental whoop of triumph.

"Just kidding!" said Hermione brightly, bringing her dry face out of her hands, "I wouldn't do that to you!"

Blaise glared. They were CROCODILE TEARS? She was FAKING IT? The Slytherin sighed wearily. "How did you even find this place?" He asked, making a mental note to kill whoever had told her where it was.

"Your friend Malfoy told me. He said you couldn't wait to see me and that I should come to make sure you were ready to go."

"He gave you the password?"

Hermione shook her head.

At that second the culprit walked around the corner. Blaise looked at him with the wish of death in his eyes, while Draco grinned smugly back behind Hermione, who hadn't noticed him yet. "You'd better get going Blaise, wouldn't want to miss the carriages."

Hermione turned around. "Hey Malfoy. He's right Blaise, we've got to hurry, or it may be too late!"

"But we still have another thirty—"

Ignoring the boy's protests, the witch half pulled, half dragged him down the hall and outside, before dumping him unceremoniously onto the floor of the carriage and taking a seat.

"Why are we here so early?" Blaise growled, getting up and plopping himself down across Hermione.

"Oh. Well, I had something I wanted to give you." she said nervously.

Blaise blinked, confused about the girl's behavior, and at the same time feeling a growing sense of apprehension. Why did he get the feeling that whatever the brunette was about to give him wasn't going to be something that he'd like?

"Since…ever since I've met…I've felt this kind of…attraction thing between us. You know?"

'Not really'

"But I knew, what with out houses being rivals and all, that, no matter how much I wanted you…how much I longed to be in your arms…it would probably never happen."

Blaise held back the urge to gag.

"But now that you've asked me out. And now that we're "an item", I no longer believe that our love can't conquer anything."

Blaise looked at her, wide eyed. "Gra-Hermione, listen, I--"

But Hermione held up her hand. "Don't say anything." She said dramatically. "This moment is too special for words to be spoken. I want to give you this. It's from my heart, and I hope you like it." she produced a package from her robes. It was in purple wrapping and said in very big letters written in fancy golden cursive, "FROM: YOUR GIRLFRIEND, HERMIONE JANE GRANGER. I'LL LOVE YOU FOREVER, BLAISE!"

TO: "BLAISE ZABANI. THERE'S NO ONE I LOVE AS MUCH AS YOU SWEETIE!"

Hearts were drawn around the package, each one saying romantic things, like. "Be Mine." And "Sugarlips" and "U R the one." As well as many other scary messages that were so cute they would make any guy want to run away screaming. But worst of all, in the bottom left hand corner, Hermione had scrawled: "Dear Blaise, You are the best man in the world. We will be the best BF and GF till the end of time. We are one. Binded together. Without you, I am only half full. You are my other half and I am yours. You complete me. And I'll love you forever! Love xxxxxxxxxooooooooooooooo your future wife, Hermione Jane Zabani."

Blaise paled. Did this Granger girl really think he liked her? He had to set this right, before his rep started going down to rock bottom. No, below rock bottom. As he knew it would go. Waaaay down below. He had gone along with it this far, but too much was too much. "Hermione, we need to talk—"

"Oh there you are!" said Draco, hopping into the carriage.

Blaise growled in frustration at being interrupted again.

"I've been looking all over for you! Mind if I join you for the ride to Hogsmeade? All the other carriages are full."

"Sure!" Chirped Hermione as Draco sat down next to Blaise, who tried to hide the package, but the blonde was too quick and yanked it out of his hand.

"What's this?" He asked, eyebrow raises, an amused look on his face.

"It's my present too him."

"Well, open it!" Said Draco gleefully, clearly enjoying every minute of this.

"I think I will later…"

"Has anyone seen professor Snape anywhere, I need to talk to him…"

"He's probably in the dungeon's." Hermione supplied as Blaise gave a strangled cry and leapt for the package, tearing it open.

He took it out of the wrapping and held it before him, his eyes widening in mortification behind it. Draco looked at it. "That's really something special." he said, the urge not to burst out laughing overwhelming.

"Do you like it?" asked Hermione excitedly.

"It" was a hoodie. But not just any hoodie like a normal person would wear. Luna would probably even question wearing it. It was a loose long sleeved satiny green color, with lighter green as the cuffs in a feathery cottony sort of material. The hood in the back was also green. Silver glitter made it sparkle incredibly and on the back, stitched in vivid silver lettering in very clear letters was "I live for Hermione Jane Granger." On the front was a very large picture of Blaise and Hermione's heads kissing (he didn't even want to know where she got those) over and over again and a red heart behind them (that grew bigger as the distance between them decreased) exploded each time they kissed, sending glittery fireworks down around them.

"I made it especially for you." Hermione continued excitedly. "You're always wearing black, and I wanted to add some color to your life. I used your house colors for you though."

"Wow. Um…thanks." Said Blaise numbly, resisting the urge to throw it out of the now moving carriage.

"Well what are you waiting for? Put it on!"

"I'd love too, but I want to save it for something really special. I wouldn't want it to get ruined or stretched."

"Oh don't worry, I put a charm on it so that it'll grow with you. And if it gets dirty, I can just use a cleaning spell. That way you can wear it every day!"

"Isn't that awesome Blaise?" asked Draco excitedly.

"It is!" Hermione agreed enthusiastically. "Put it on! Put it on!" She yelled excitedly, jumping up and down in her seat, making the carriage rock.

"Yeah Blaise, put it on." said Draco with a smug pointed look in his friend's direction.

So the poor Slytherine had no choice but to put it on, and leave his nice, normal shirt with Draco, who promised to "take care of it", and giving Blaise no opportunity to figure out a way to change out of the shirt. (Hermione had at least closed her eyes when he'd changed out.)

Hermione grinned to herself as they neared Hogsmeade. Blaise Zabani wasn't going to get away that easily. Oh no. He would pay for trying to use her. The next few hours would be very interesting for the raven haired boy. He wouldn't be forgetting their date for a v e r y l o n g time.

**O.o another chapter is done! I hope it was at least a little funny ha haI'm usually not that good at humor stories. I'm sorry I didn't make it longer. But Blaise is in for a lot of embarrassing moments in the next chapter.**

**Wow! I couldn't believe how many reviews I've gotten for this story! And we're only on chapter three! I'm glad you guys are enjoying it. Keep reviewing you guys rock!**

**Yup! Draco is playing along at being nice to Hermione so that it gives him lots of opportunities to taunt Blaise. Remember, neither of the Slytherins knows that Hermione knows of their plan.**


	3. One in a Million

**Disclaimer: Not owning Harry Potter…or Draco for that matter. (Darn.) Nor do I own the song ONE IN A MILLION.**

**Deranged Banshee**

**One in a Million**

All too quickly the carriages came to a grinding halt. Blaise wished he would die. Why, why, why had he played that game of Truth or Dare? It was a girly game. Not something a manly Slytherin like him should have been playing. If he hadn't he could be hanging out with his friends, instead of sitting in a carriage with Hermione Granger, dressed in the most hideous thing ever, and with Draco shaking with the urge to not burst out laughing every few seconds.

As the carriage started to stop, Blaise backed into the corner, making himself as small as he could. His hope was that he wall would swallow him, or he'd fall through some unseen vortex or something.

Hermione hopped up the minute the carriage had come to a complete stop. "Yay! We're here!"

Blaise merely shrunk father back, if that was even possible.

"Wait a second." said Draco, reaching into his pocket. "There's something I want to do before we all leave. Granger, go stand over there by Blaise."

"Okay!" Hermione complied, doing a half skip across the carriage over to the forlorn Slytherin, who was looking longingly in the direction of Hogwarts.

"Right, you kneel next to him and put your face there. That's good. Now smile really big. Blaise you smile too…"

Blaise looked up, coming out of his self pitying soliloquy and gazed at Draco warily, who had taken a magical camera out of his robes. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing. I just wanted to be able to remember this day forever." he said simply, bringing up the devise to his eye.

"Draco Malfoy, if you take that picture I swear I will-" He started to get up, but Hermione put her arm around his head from under his neck and held it firmly, trapping the Slytherin, a large excited grin still on her face.

It felt awkward to Hermione to be so close to a guy she was supposed to hate. It just wasn't natural. She didn't feel attracted to him or anything, it was just weird. Scratch that, it was awkward to be in this situation at all.

Draco interrupted Blaise's threat, "I was thinking that it would also be really cool if I made life size posters and put them around Hogwarts! What do you guys think?"

Blaise's mouth and eyes widened in horror, while nodded vigorously, practically bursting with glee.

"I knew you'd like it!" Draco said.

Blaise finally managed to break free of Hermione and with a cry lunged toward Draco, arms outstretched.

SNAP!

Draco took the picture just as Blaise leapt through the air, with Hermione sitting on the carriage floor in the back ground, an amused look on her face. Blaise's mouth was open in a battle cry, his arms outstretched, the hoodie sparkling vividly in the sunlight pouring in through the cage, and the faces on it nearly touching as the photo was snapped.

Draco jumped out of the way quickly and hopped out of the carriage as Blaise went crashing to the floor.

"That was brilliant!" he said. "I'll just go get this developed. Have fun you two!" he cackled evilly and ran off.

Hermione walked over to Blaise, reaching out her hand to help him up.

"I can get up myself." he snapped, rising to his feet.

"I was just trying to be nice." Hermione pouted. "But come on let's go."

She didn't give him a chance to protest as she led him from the carriage and down the walkway that led into Hogsmeade. Blaise looked up and down the street for the blonde, but didn't see him. Draco was safe…for now.

"So where do you want to go first?" asked Hermione, looking around the shops with interest. She had at least decided to let Blaise choose some of the places they were to go. After all, Hermione still had a heart and had already probably scarred his pride for life.

Blaise watched as people stared at them. Some looked shocked, others looked mortified, and several people shook their head before walking on. Some of the people (mostly the older women) cast curios eyes but smiled slightly, happy to see that love could still cause bonds like theirs, if not also a little frightened.

Hermione pulled her coat more tightly around her, the chilly wind whipping her hair about. "Blaise?"

"I don't care." He said. He would have been perfectly happy just standing there. Maybe the snow would bury him or something.

Hermione felt bad for a second, but then remembered how mean Blaise had been to her and her friends all their years at Hogwarts and the feeling faded away like the vapor from her warm breaths penetrating the cold winter air.

"Alright then, we'll go to the book shop first." she said, taking him firmly by the hand and leading him off into a shop a little ways down the road.

Blaise rolled his eyes, not really wanting to go to a shop that reminded him so forcibly of monotone days of professors and sleepless nights of assignments. But as Hermione had a firm grip on his hand and was clearly not going to let him get away, he had little choice in the matter. He did know that there was at least one good thing about the bookshop: he doubted anyone he knew (at least very well) would be in there.

The witch at the desk looked up as the pair entered. "Ah! Hermione! So nice to see you again! And who might this be?" she asked, smoothing back a few strands of silver hair that had escaped her bun and giving Blaise a curious look and staring at his bizarre attire.

"I'm Blaise Zabini." he said, attempting to regain some of his pride back. But then he wondered if maybe telling his name was a mistake. What if the elderly witch talked about him to her friends or something and…

"Very nice to meet you." she said, holding out her hand for him too shake.

"He's my BOYFRIEND!" said Hermione very loudly and excitedly, so that a couple near by looked at them and snorted noticeably. Blaise could feel his face heat up, and was damning Malfoy to hell.

"Oh…how nice. I was wondering if he was, seeing as how he's wearing this, er, lovely sweater."

"Hmm mmh. Well, I was wondering if you've gotten any new books you think I might like?"

The witch smiled. "I'm glad you asked. We just got in a book a few days ago that I'm sure you'll like." she picked her away around the books piled on the floor near the desk and led them down a random isle that was filled with books of wizarding fairy tales. She turned down another isle, and out of the corner of his eye Blaise could have sworn he saw the Potions Master. He hid slightly behind Hermione as the older witch stopped in front of another shelf filled with books on Transfiguration. She ran her fingers over the thick spines, muttering to herself. "Here it is!" she said excitedly, pulling the book from its place and handing it to Hermione. Hermione read the cover. " 'Tricks of 

Transfiguration: Ancient Spells to Amaze and Mystify You.' Wow this is really cool! Thanks Mrs. Famagusta."

"I thought of you the moment it came in." she said, please with herself and holding out her hand for Hermione to dump the payment in.

Minutes later the duo had left, Hermione with a slight bounce to her step. "Where to next?" she asked.

"I don't know."

"There has to be some place you want to go." Hermione persisted.

"Not really."

"How about the Quidditch store? You like Quidditch don't you? Why don't we go there?"

Blaise started to nod, then froze, remembering that there would probably be people there that he would know.

"Ye-no."

" 'Ya-know?'"

"What?"

"Huh?"

They both stared at one another a moment, perplexed.

"Just pick somewhere." Hermione whined. "It's no fun for you if I get to pick every place we go." She was being serious. She really didn't like to be the one to make all the decisions all the time. It was bloody annoying!

"I don't care Granger!"

"Fine." said Hermione haughtily. She knew she was being a little too rude too quickly, but the nagging feeling that she at least owed Blaise something to pay him back for how she was to embarrass him today (she was a Gryffindor, with morals and principles) kept bugging her and she needed to rectify it. And he was stopping her from having the satisfaction. Stupid Slytherin git.

A light bulb suddenly went off in Blaise's head. Hopefully, it would work. Oh God how he hoped it would work.

Suddenly Blaise bent over, doubled up in pain, a look of agony adorning his face. He 

moaned aloud.

"B-Blaise?" Hermione stammered, bending down next to him, positively alarmed. "What's wrong?"

"Stomach…hurts…" he ground out. "Must…get back…to school…"

"Oh my!" cried Hermione.

Blaise smirked mentally, though made sure to keep up his act of physical trauma. It was working. The stupid mudblood was actually buying his little charade. Ha!

"Don't worry Blaise, I know just what to do!" cried the brunette, taking Blaise's hand and helping him up, practically dragging him up the street.

Blaise breathed a sigh of relief and almost laughed with glee at his lucky escape.

It was then that the raven haired boy noticed something that was a little off. She was leading him in a direction opposite that of Hogwarts. Yes, they were definitely going the wrong way. So then where…

Hermione rolled her eyes as she ran in front of Blaise. Did he really think he could fool her? Pfffttth She wasn't stupid, after all. And, to be completely honest, his acting skills needed some major work. Major.

"Where are we going?" Blaise asked, miraculously regaining the ability of regularly paced speech. He decided to cough at this moment to cover his mistake.

"To eat!"

"Isn't that (cough) bad for a (cough) stomach ache?" he asked desperately.

"Not Italian food!" Hermione yelled. "Now hurry, or it'll be too late!" She was lying, of course, because eating was definitely not the thing to do when one was ill, but she saw saying it as an opportunity to get him to eat with her. Not that she much liked the prospect of eating with Blaise to begin with, but she was still not finished teaching him a lesson.

Blaise groaned and could only try not to fall as he was led on mercilessly.

Unbeknownst to Blaise, Hermione was having a battle inside herself. Her head was spinning back and forth, searching for Harry or Ron. If she was caught, it would mean trouble!

:FLASH BACK:AFTER POTIONS:

"What was that all about?" asked Harry, a confused expression on his face. Hermione was whispering something excitedly to Andrea, who grinned impishly.

"Just girl stuff." they answered together.

"Whatever." Harry sighed, as they continued to whisper. He eyed Hermione strangely, wondering what in the world Zabini could have said to make her so happy.

"Did you hex him?" asked Harry out of the blue, looking at her with confusion.

"Hex--?" asked Hermione, bewildered.

"Zabini. Did you hex Zabini?"

Comprehension dawned on Hermione. "Oh, yeah…yeah I used the, er, Jelly Legs Jinx. On both of them—yeah—that's right." she said shiftily.

Harry grinned, "Cool." he seemed to relax.

Hermione and Andrea, exchanged looks, both knowing the trap Hermione had almost fallen into. Going out with an enemy of your best friend, joke or not, was crossing the line. And the fact that Blaise was a Slytherin made the line look like dot. A very teeny tiny baby ant-sized one.

:END FLASHBACK:

"We're here." panted Hermione, stopping outside of a restaurant that looked very fancy and very expensive. Through the windows they could see wizards and witches in fancy dress robes and uniforms, though the atmosphere seemed to be a little more casual then the usual evening one, since it was earlier in the day.

"Here?" asked Blaise, eyes widening in horror. Did she really expect him to go in there, dressed like, like some buffoon? Uh-uh not happening. Sorry. No can do.

"Come on, then." Hermione said, holding the door open for him.

Blaise looked from the door to Hermione, back to the door again. Inside there, there would most likely be people like him, people that were rich and had money to go to such places. And if one of them recognized him…he shuddered to think about.

And so, in a moment of desperation and complete lack of dignity, as nightmarish situations such as this usually called for such behavior, he took a brave step forwards.

"Ouch! My foot. I-I can't walk!" he yelled dramatically, falling to the ground and putting a hand to his foot. "I think it's sprained, or broken! Somebody, help me! I'm dying!" he bellowed piteously. Several people had stopped to watch and some of the couples near 

the window were looking out.

Hermione watched him, a little impressed. He was really trying hard wasn't he? Heh heh. Loser. Hermione bounded up to him, holding out her wand. A small, concerned crowd had already gathered around the couple. Hermione knelt down next to Blaise just as he proclaimed, "…darkness-closing in… Her-Hermione, is- is that you?"

Hermione refused the very strong urge to roll her eyes. "Yes."

"I-I don't think I'm-going to make it." he spluttered. "I'll miss you, Hermione. Tell Draco, goodbye for me…"

A witch nearby sniffled loudly.

It was very strange no was trying to help.

"You'll live." said Hermione. "I know a spell to fix you right up."

Blaise blinked. "No. It's too late already. Don't worry about me Hermione-we all have to go someday. Live your life. I'll (grunt) be watching over you."

Hermione tried not to burst out laughing at his foolish antics and swished her wand. A cast found it self onto Blaise's "broken" leg. She flicked her spell again and one of the fancy chairs inside the restaurant transformed into a wheel-chair, which she motioned over to them. "There you are. Now, will somebody help me lift him up here?"

Blaise almost cried. Someone up there must really hate him today. He tried not to look at any of the faces watching him. One of the wizard's must have noticed his distressed features because he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder and heard him say reassuringly, "It'll be okay, son." He looked up to see the witch accompanying the man giving Hermione a reprimanding look, possibly for not being caring enough.

Now that he was on the chair and strapped in (something thought up by Hermione, so that he wouldn't fall out, aka attempt to get away again) Hermione wheeled him inside the restaurant, ensuring both the people in the restaurant, as all of them were now watching intently, and the crowd outside that Blaise was going to be just fine before closing the door behind her.

They, or rather Hermione, as Blaise was strapped to the wheel-chair, or what he called, "Chair of Doom", walked up to a hostess behind a tall podium. Couples were gradually melting back into their former routines, though some still watched curiously.

"Reservations?" asked the witch politely, eyes traveling over Hermione and Blaise's forms.

Blaise's eyes lit up. As far as he remembered, he had made no reservations. They 

weren't going to be able to eat here! Ha! Maybe someone up there did like him after all. "Oh no Hermione! I didn't know we had to make reservations!" exclaimed Blaise, feigning shock. "We won't be able to eat her after all."

Hermione smiled widely at him. "Don't worry, I remembered last night to call in."

"Oh…….great."

"We're Blaise Zabini, and Hermione Zabini for nonsmoking."

Blaise gave a silent gag.Hermione Zabini What the hell?

"Right this way please." said the hostess, leading them through a labyrinth of twisting tables and couples.

Hermione looked around. It was a very nice place. The walls were a warm red color that reminded her of the Gryffindor common room, and painting adorned the walls. The tables were small, obviously made with couples in mind, though there was the occasional larger table for gatherings. They were covered with white tablecloths and a candle hovered in mid-air above the couples' heads, positioned there so that no accidental injury was caused from hand-holding or kissing or anything of that sort. It was extinguished now but Hermione could bet they would all be lit to a rather sensuous glow come evening.

"You're very lucky to have called when you did. You get one of our best tables." said the hostess, putting down menus as Hermione helped get Blaise situated. Hermione gasped, noticing the hearth and roaring fire in front of their table. A small mini stage sat in the front center of the room, where there was a piano that was played during the dinner hours and a small microphone for performances.

"It's so beautiful in here." said Hermione in awe. If she ever got a real boyfriend then she'd definitely come here again.

The hostess nodded appreciatively. "It has a very romantic feel to it doesn't it though? It's the perfect place to 'pop the question'. I've seen it happen quiet a few times already." she sighed nostalgically and Hermione politely smiled. Blaise snickered, which seemed to bring the witch out of her trip to Memory Lane.

"Have a wonderful meal. Someone should be with you shortly."

"Isn't it amazing here Blaise?"

"Uhh…sure." said Blaise non-committed.

Hermione shook her head. Boys.

A young looking waiter walked up to them, carrying a tray with glasses and a silver pitcher. "Hello, my name is Ken, and I will be your waiter for this evening. Our special today is the shrimp pasta with salad. It's very well rated among our customers. What would you like to drink? I'm sorry there isn't much choice. This place is usually the haunt of couples twenty-one and older so there are more alcoholic drinks than anything else. And unfortunately, you're not old enough yet so your choices are limited. You automatically get water with your meal though," he said apologetically, setting a glass down in front of each of them and filling it.

"What other drinks do you have?" asked Hermione politely.

"Well, let's see. There's milk, and tea, oh, and I almost forgot…coke products!" he said, obviously happy he remembered.

Blaise, who had been taking a sip of his water, spluttered. "What?"

"Coke products." repeated Ken slowly and clearly, as though Blaise was not completely there.

"That's- that's disgusting!" said Blaise, enraged. "How could you possibly serve that kind of thing? And to Hogwarts students no less!"

Hermione stared at Blaise, nonplussed. She rather liked Coke her self. Being in the wizarding world most of the time, she rarely ever got to have it. She didn't see why Blaise was making such a big deal about it. It wasn't that horrible of a drink, and who said he had to have it anyway? He could order tea or something.

Geez, what a stupid thing to get so passionately upset about.

"It's very popular!" said the waiter defensively.

"Popular? Popular? You disgust me!"

A light bulb of understanding suddenly went off in Hermione's head as she put two and two together.

Oh…

Yes, that would explain it.

"Um…Blaise?" she said weakly, tapping him on the arm.

"Not now, Hermione." he said, swatting her hand away, still seething at their poor waiter, who looked like he was about to fall over. "I have half a mind to report you!"

"It's not my fault people like Coke! It's a muggle thing anyway!"

Blaise stared at him incredulously. "What difference does that make? It's bloody illegal!"

The waiter studied him a moment, confusion written all over his face. He looked from Blaise, who's hands were clenched into tight fists above the table, to the girl sitting across from him, who had her head in her hands and looked about two seconds from banging her head on the table, and laughed.

"Oh…ha ha…I see now…oh yes, very funny…ha ha."

Blaise's eyes narrowed. "I don't see anything funny here. Do you, Hermione?" he asked dangerously.

Hermione could only groan and stare up at the waiter apologetically.

The smile fell like honey in the summer from the waiter's face. He turned around for a brief moment, muttered something quick and hurried to the man sitting behind him, and turned back around to Hermione and Blaise, holding a glass of some dark liquid.

Blaise stared at it. It looked positively disgusting. It resembled a potion they had studied in potions that medieval witches and wizards used to torture prisoners. He wondered what it was doing in a restaurant, and why it was being served to people. Or, more importantly, why they were willing to drink it?

The world really was full of crazy people.

"This is Coke." said Ken.

Blaise stared at it suspiciously. He then looked at Hermione for confirmation.

She nodded. "It's a muggle drink. It's really bubbly inside your mouth and has kind of a sweet taste to it, I guess you could say. And it's completely one hundred percent legal." she informed him.

"Ah…" said Blaise, realizing that he no longer had a problem with the waiter or the muggle drink. That didn't mean he was actually going to drink the drink. It was, after all, a muggle drink. Muggle being the key word. "I'll have tea then, thanks." he said, a bit apologetically. He, contrary to what was popular belief, had no problem using his manners thank you very much.

"Coke, please."

The waiter nodded and told them he'd be back a moment later to take their orders. He seemed awfully glad to be away from the raven-haired boy and Hermione couldn't blame him. She looked over her menu, wondering what she should get. She was sorely tempted to get the shrimp pasta that was mentioned earlier, but she wanted to be sure. 

"What are you getting?"

Blaise shrugged, and Hermione dove back into her menu once more.

:ELSEWHERE IN HOGSMEADE:

Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Andrea all walked through the crowded streets of Hogsmeade. Though none of them were having as good of a time as they usually would have, as Harry and Ron kept asking the same, annoying question:

"Are you sure you haven't seen Hermione anywhere?" asked Harry, who was concerned at his friend's sudden absence. She had mysteriously disappeared from sight earlier in the day, saying she had to head to the library. But when Harry and Ron went down there, they couldn't find her anywhere.

"No Harry, for the umpteenth time, I have not seen her."

"Nor have I." supplied Andrea.

"It's just…strange is all." said Harry.

"Do you think she's sick or something?" asked Ron.

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Harry, Ron, Hermione is a big girl. She can take care of herself. She knows more spells than all four of us combined. Trust me, she'll be fine." she said a little exasperatedly. She loved Harry and Ron to death, but seriously, Hermione wasn't a toddler.

Harry nodded, and the group walked into the Three Broomsticks, Ginny and Andrea exchanging a look.

They sat down at a booth and as it was Andrea's turn to get the drinks she left for the bar.

"Afternoon, Potter. Having a nice day, I hope?" asked a cold voice that clearly hoped Harry was having the worst possible day of his life.

"Malfoy," said Harry evenly, gritting his teeth. The other two were also looking at him coldly. Harry noticed that he was holding a shirt and wondered what on earth he could be doing with it. Probably stole it. He thought bitterly. Off of someone or something similar and equally vile.

"Sod of Malfoy, we don't want you here." Ron snarled.

"Tsk. Tsk. Manners, Weasley. I only came over here to ask how your little mudblood friend was doing? Were you three shocked when you found out? After all, I certainly 

would have never expected it." he smirked.

"What the hell do you know about Hermione!" demanded Ron, struggling to pummel him. Harry was glad he'd made Ron sit on the inside of the booth or there would be a definite blood bath and they would never find out what had happened to their bookworm friend.

"What are you talking about?" asked Harry coldly.

"Don't you know? My my, and here I thought the three of you told each other everything. But, then again, life is full of surprises, isn't it?"

Ginny stared back at Draco, hating him. She thought she knew what he was doing. The bloody bastard. There was no way she'd be able to stop it either.

It took all Harry had to not jump on Malfoy and threaten to castrate him unless he told them Hermione's whereabouts that very instant. "Malfoy, I'm warning you-"

Draco cut him off. "Warning me now, Potter? Not a very smart approach when you so clearly want information that only I can give you. You don't expect me to just tell you where the piece of dirt you call your friend is for free do you? It's going to take much persuasion. Better take out some parchment if you want to know so that you don't forget any of my demands Potter." he kept his voice low so that only they could hear.

Ron tried to jump across Harry to tackle Draco, but was stopped by Ginny who pushed him roughly back down and hissed a warning. This whole exchange made the blond snort, and Ron give him the finger.

"We don't fraternize with the enemy, Malfoy! Ever!" said Ron furiously and very red in the face.

Malfoy just smirked some more. "I guess that just goes to show how much you care for your friend. Then again, not that I can blame you. If the mudblood were my friend I doubt I'd help either. It'd be sort of a relief, you know." he winked at Harry, as though sharing a rather clever joke.

Ginny screamed as Harry suddenly jumped up and tackled Malfoy to the ground, punching every inch of the Slytherin he could reach. Ron yelled as people looked up and joined in the fight. People in the pub all turned to stare at them, slowly gathering around to watch. Some of the braver students attempted to help Ginny drag Harry and Ron off of Draco, though somewhat reluctantly and not using as much effort as they normally would have.

The three boys stared at each other, hatred burning in their eyes. Harry had a bloody lip, and Ron's eye was a little black, but Draco was the worst. His nose was bleeding rather badly and his eye was a deep purple color. Harry and Ron noted this with satisfaction.

"How dare you!" said Madame Rosmerta, positively livid. "You disgust me! I would have expected a little better behavior from Hogwarts students. All three of you, in the back with me now! Luckily Professor Snape is here on a meeting with me and I am sure he'd love to hear what happened!"

"But Malfoy, he-"

"NOW!"

Harry and Ron exchanged helpless glances and followed Draco and Madame Rosmerta to their death sentence.

The crowd slowly dispersed, everyone muttering excitedly about the fight. Ginny and Andrea's eyes met across the pub, Andrea looking positively flabbergasted, four bottles of drinks in her arms. Ginny gave a nod, and they both dashed out of the pub amidst curious chattering, on the search for Hermione.

BACK AT THE RESTAURANT

When the waiter came back Hermione had ordered the shrimp pasta with salad and Blaise had chosen the lasagna.

While looking over the menu, Hermione had noticed the prices, and her heart had leapt a little. She doubted Blaise would have a problem paying for his own meal, but she was middle class, and therefore spending seventeen galleons on a simple pasta and salad was kind of pricy.

She sighed and looked at the fire, relishing in its warmth. She looked over at Blaise, who was staring into space, obviously bored. "So Blaise, tell me something about yourself."

Blaise looked at her, wondering what on earth he could possibly have to say to her. "What?" he said, as in Why would I do that?

"Well, what kinds of things do you like to do?"

He smirked a smirk worthy of Malfoy. "Let's see…Quidditch, snogging, getting laid, torturing first year Gryffindors, and, yeah that about sums it up." he said somewhat sarcastically, counting off on his fingers. He was hoping that his answers would drive her away.

Hermione frowned. What a typical Slytherin piggish prick type answer.

To Blaise's relief they didn't talk much after that, as Hermione wasn't really in the mood to discuss any of the subjects he had brought up.

:HOGWARTS:

Harry and Ron sat in their dormitories, seething, and now more worried about Hermione then ever. As predictable, the minute that they had accused Malfoy, both Snape and the culprit himself insisted that they were hearty liars and that Granger was just fine and unless the both of them wanted to be expelled they had better get back to their dorms and come to detention every night at 9:00 for the next week.

They had had a first year girl go up to the girl's dormitories to look for Hermione there, but had no luck. Ron had gone to check the library again while Harry stayed in case she came back but Hermione was still missing then as well. Harry even looked at the Marauders map and found it devoid of any dot labled 'Hermione Granger.'

"Well, at least we know she's at Hogsmeade, most likely." said Ron. "Students don't have to come back for another two hours yet, so I think we might as well wait till then to start looking again."

Harry nodded heavily. What choice did they have anyway? They had no clue where they could begin to look anyway. And with that not so comforting thought, he went up to the dorms to retrieve his homework.

: HOGSMEADE:

Ginny and Andrea tore through the streets of the wizarding village, looking for Hermione in every window they passed. They remembered Hermione mentioning the place she was going but neither knew where it was and so it didn't hurt to look every where they could.

"In there!" Andre yelled suddenly, pulling Ginny down behind some bushed and pointing into the restaurant where they had a clear view of their bushy haired friend.

"Perfect." said Ginny, fishing in her robes and pulling out two flesh colored strings. She passed one to Andrea and they watched the great invention by Fred and George slip underneath the doors.

"…pass me the butter please."

Blaise passed Hermione the butter and she buttered her roll. Blaise rolled his eyes at how slow she was eating. He had wolfed down his meal in about three minutes and had already asked for the check and had even paid for Hermione's dinner since he didn't want to risk staying longer and also out of habit of being the "gentlemen" (something he prided himself on, at least in the company of girls he actually liked.) She, however, was eating agonizingly slowly, until he was sure her food was going to get moldy or maybe even get so bored as to walk away from her. He had seen his grandmother, who was seventy, eat faster than her.

"Are you okay?" asked Hermione. "You seem a little tense."

"Just eat, Granger."

Hermione shrugged. She was, of course, eating slowly on purpose. There was no real reason for this. She just wanted to annoy him as much as she could. Suddenly, a very wicked idea came to her she stood up, taking another long sip of coke. She had had three glasses already. What could she say, she loved the stuff! It even rivaled her love of learning!

Well, okay, let's not go too far.

"I'll be right back, okay?"

"Yeah." Blaise said, and as she left he found himself thinking: Don't come back. Under any circumstances don't come back.

A few minutes passed and suddenly a blaring noise was heard through the restaurant and his head snapped up towards the stage.

"Excuse me, everyone?" said a nervous, and yet confident sounding voice.

Blaise stared at her, bewildered. Talk about totally unexpected.

"Hello. I'm Hermione Granger and, well, there's something I'd like to tell someone here tonight."

Blaise's stomach twisted in knots and he had the very bad feeling she was referring to him. Oh how he needed to escape from the restaurant, and fast. If only Hermione had tied him down to the damn Chair of Doom and stuffed his wand in the back pocket of her jeans to prevent any "accidents." Bloody Gryffindor.

"There is a person here with me tonight, whom I love very much."

Yep, that cleared that up.

A few people looked at Blaise and he tried, unsuccessfully, to shrink in his seat.

"And if he'll listen, I'd like to put on this little performance for him." she was almost shaking now and had begun to look very white and nervous but still had that I'M GOING TO DO WHAT I CAME UP HERE TO DO AND I AM GOING TO KICK BUTT WHILE DOING IT air about her.

Ginny and Andrea's eyes widened in shock and Blaise felt himself go numb from embarrassment and horror.

He thought he knew what was coming and he prayed he was wrong.

Oh please God please let him be wrong.

Please if there is any mercy in the heavens at all do not let her do what he thinks she's about to do.

"Blaise, I'd like to sing this song for you. It's a muggle song, and one of my favorites. I hope you like it too."

The whole restaurant stared at her, and then him, and back again.

And Blaise seriously considered stabbing himself in the heart with his fork.

Music began to magically fill the room as though there were invisible speakers placed everywhere.

And Hermione began to sing.

_You're one in a million_

_Oh…_

_You're on in a million_

_Oh…_

_Sometimes love can hit you everyday_

_Sometimes you can fall for everyone you see_

_But only one can really make me stay_

_A sign from the sky said to me_

_You're one in a million_

_Once in a lifetime_

_You made me discover why there are stars above us_

_You're one in a million_

_Once in a lifetime_

_You made me discover why there are stars above us_

_I've been looking for that special one_

_I've been searching for someone to give my love_

_When I thought that all the hope was gone_

_I smiled, there you were, and I was gone_

_I always will remember how I felt that day_

_A feeling indescribable to me_

_Yeah_

_I always knew there was an answer for my prayer_

_And you, you're the one, the one for me_

_You're one in a million_

_Once in a lifetime_

_You made me discover why there are stars above us_

_You're one in a million_

_Once in a lifetime_

_You made me discover why there are stars above us…_

People openly stared as Hermione sang. Truth be told, she sounded horrible, but, bless her brave little soldier heart, she gave it everything she had. She threw her head back at times and even danced a little. Well, if you could call it dancing, as it looked more like she kept on tripping over things (as Hermione had taken some "pointers" from the movie Hitch she had watched during the summer and had even been brave enough to mimic the Q-tip dance during part of it), and she was making gestures that went along with the lines of the song, and nearly knocking peoples dinner of their tables as she made her way slowly towards Blaise with the mic still in hand, looking him right in the eye while she sang.

Suddenly her voice stopped and she stood right in front of Blaise, a little closer then he normally would have liked. Like about one inch from his face too close.

Everyone waited with bated breath to see what would happen next. Some breathed sighs of relief at seeing that she had stopped singing and let go of their firm grips on 

their dinner plates.

Blaise was now looking everywhere but at the positively deranged girl in front of him, planning some cold oh-so-sweet revenge for Draco if he ever got out of this alive. Providing that, you know, he didn't die from embarrassment or something.

Which at the moment seemed like a possibility.

"Blaise, you're the one for me."

Ginny and Andrea gasped and everyone stared.

And Blaise sat in his wheel-chair, frozen in shock, because Hermione Jean Granger, a mudblood no less, was standing in front of him.

And kissing him.

**Ha ha! I had a lot of fun writing this very long chapter! I hope you all like it!**

**I saw Disturbia, it was awesome! ShiaLebouf (or however you spell it) was so HOT! I was so jealous of that girl!**


	4. A Complete and Utter Lack of Sanity

**Disclaimer: Not owning HP…**

**A note: No, Hermione doesn't really dance or sing like she did in ONE IN A MILLION. She did that purely to torture Blaise.**

**Warning: A little cussing in this chapter…**

**Deranged Banshee**

**A Complete and Utter Lack of Sanity**

Mental.

Absolutely and completely MENTAL!

What in the bloody hell was she doing?

Apparently thinking was not the answer.

Hermione wrapped her arms around Blaise's neck, still kissing him.

Yes, that's right…

Still kissing him.

She was surprised she hadn't gotten pushed to the floor and hexed all the way to Pluto by now.

"Hermione, this isn't exactly what we meant when we said to play with his mind!" said Ginny in a panicky voice from outside the doors.

"You have to admit she's doing a good job of it though."

They both stared, itching to go in and grab Hermione and take her to St. Mungo's and probably get her some intensive therapy before she lost her mind any further (though it was apparent she didn't have that much farther to go); and watching to see what happened next.

Blaise was completely numb from shock. He tried to get his limbs moving so that he could push away the very last person he wanted glued to his face, but his arms wouldn't obey his mental commands. This was strange because kissing her was complete and absolute torture! If anyone found out he'd never live it down. He'd have to get a new name, a new address; why, he'd be forced to leave the country, maybe even the planet!

That's if, you know, he didn't kill himself first. This seemed like a rather good option at the moment. Alas, if only his limbs were working again.

Hermione was very alarmed. She didn't know what was happening to her. She had not planned to kiss Blaise. She sent a side long glance to her innocent looking drink, eyeing in suspiciously. Maybe there really were drugs inside of it. It would certainly explain her horrifying and bee-zzare behavior.

So then…why was she still kissing him?

Hermione gasped and pulled away, dumbfounded and hovering a few inches from Blaise's face. He was staring at her wide-eyed and she was giving him the same look. "Oh." she said stupidly, standing up and sprinting wildly from the restaurant as though running from an escaped convict from Azkaban.

She emerged in an alleyway, as she had taken an emergency exit rather than the normal one. She walked back and forth, wringing her hands. Her face was hot and red. Shit. Shit. What had she been thinking? There was obviously some Dark magic or Essence of Insanity at work here. Personally Hermione was willing to bet the former.

Meanwhile, back inside the restaurant Blaise was still tied down to that damn wheelchair. He automatically reached for his wand, intent on freeing himself and erasing everyone's memory in the restaurant of this rather horrifying day. He hated the way they were all looking at him sympathetically. But when his fingers brushed against nothing but material, he realized with a jolt of foreboding that Granger still had his wand.

AAAARRRGGGHHHH!

He looked down at the piece of black cloth that bound him to the chair and cursed. Knowing Granger, some magic spell would be needed to open it. But as he didn't have his wand, he tried the next best thing. He only hoped no one would hear him. This seemed unlikely however since everyone was still in a shocked silence.

"Open sesame." he said barely above a whisper. Nothing happened.

"Abra Kadabra."

"Please let me go." he whispered pleadingly, though it seemed intent on keeping him in its clutches forever.

"Why don't you just untie it?" asked a wizard in a very 'duh' manner.

Blaise looked to the side where the man was pointing and rolled his eyes, beginning to undo the knot.

Seriously, why hadn't he thought of that before?

Ginny and Andrea started to run around to where Hermione was, but stopped when the door suddenly burst open and Hermione startled.

"Granger!" said a very angry person walking towards her.

"B-Blaise?"

"Cut the crap Granger. I know it was all an act!" he spat furiously, advancing on her. "Even you wouldn't be stupid enough to pull a stunt like that, even if you are a good-for-nothing mudblood!"

His words stun Hermione like a thousand knives digging into her skin. She had heard that word more than enough times everyday from numerous Slytherins but it still hurt her feelings. Just what made him better than her anyway? At least she didn't prejudice against people based on their bloody family! For some reason it was bothering her today more than it had on other days and to her horror she felt a hot prickling feeling somewhere in the middle of her face. But she would sell her soul to Satan before she'd let Blaise see her cry.

Andrea had to literally use all her strength to hold back Ginny from throttling Blaise. Hermione and Blaise hadn't yet noticed the two.

Hermione scowled at him. "Think you'd be able to come up with something better, seeing as that's the only insult you can ever seem to come up with. Truth be told it's getting a little old."

"Is that the same look you had on your face when you fucked Weasley? I can see why he stayed with you. It suits you much better than your normal expression."

"Go fuck yourself."

"I wouldn't mind, but I'm a little busy right now, and being kissed by you is beginning to make me feel ill."

They stared at each other, fire burning in both of their eyes.

"You deserved what you got!" Hermione suddenly yelled. "Serves you right for trying to use people!"

"Slytherin," smirked Blaise, "It's what we do."

"You Slytherin's are such insolent bastards!" yelled Hermione.

Blaise smirked. "You say that like it's a bad thing." he then began advancing towards her.

"What are you doing?" asked Hermione warily.

"What do you think I'm doing, I'm getting my wand Granger. Good God, you didn't think I was coming after you did you?" he asked, shuddering at the disturbing thought.

Hermione scowled. "I don't have your wand!"

"Yes you do. Quit playing around Granger!" Blaise shouted, aggravated and reaching around Hermione to grab his wand.

Hermione yelped and slapped him against his face. Blaise's head snapped to the side, a handprint on his face. Ginny and Andrea ran towards them.

"What the hell was that for Granger!" he yelled, fingering his bruised cheek.

"What did you expect me to do? You were advancing on me!"

Blaise stared at her incredulously and held up his wand. "I was getting this! Merlin, are you daft?"

"Ah…" said Hermione, realizing her mistake.

"Hey Hermione." said Andrea.

Hermione stared wide-eyed at them but didn't have time to question their strange appearance out of thin air as she suddenly felt her wand being torn out of her hand. She gasped and looked at Blaise.

Blaise wasn't really sure what he was doing. He just wanted to pay Hermione back for what she had done to him and how she had so cruelly embarrassed him. Gryffindors were supposed to be noble for Christ's sake! But as Ginny and Andrea both had their wands and eyes locked on him lest he try to hex her, he did the only thing he could and snapped her wand in half.

Hermione cried out in protest as Blaise chucked the pieces at her with all the force he could muster. He was literally shaking with rage.

"Be thankful Weasley and Robbins are around to protect you, or your wand wouldn't be the only thing broken." he snarled.

Hermione felt tears of rage roll down her cheeks. She needed her wand! Without it she would fail her classes!

"Zabini, sod off before we hex you." Ginny threatened darkly.

He scowled at them all before walking off into the shadows.

"My wand…" Hermione breathed, adopting the voice one would have while at the bedside of a very sick person and cradling the halves in her hands.

"There, there," said Andrea soothingly, patting her on the back. "You can always get a new one. A better one."

Hermione sniffled. "Where'd you guys come from anyway?" her heart stopped. "Harry and Ron aren't here are they?" she looked around warily. That would be the last thing she needed.

Ginny shook her head. "They got in a fight with Malfoy."

"What?"

"They got in a fight with Malfoy."

"No, I heard you. I mean what?"

"Oh, well, he said he knew something about you, and he made it seem like you were in trouble or something."

Hermione rolled her eyes and asked exactly what happened as they started to walk back to Hogwarts.

"Great." fumed Hermione when they had finished. "Harry and Ron can't find out about this whole thing!"

"We know. But, Hermione, what was that whole thing with Blaise?" prodded Ginny.

Hermione froze, her cheeks becoming pink. The other two stopped walking as they noticed their friend wasn't with them. "I-I don't know, really." stammered Hermione, a little shakily. Seriously, who wouldn't be shaking after suddenly kissing that, that thing. Hermione wasn't even completely sure it was human. Huuuugh.

"I mean, I know we told you to mess with his head, but you didn't have to take it that far." continued Ginny.

They began walking again.

"Do you like him?" interjected Andrea before Hermione could continue.

Hermione glared at her.

"Right, sorry, sorry!"

"I don't know. It just happened all of a sudden. I didn't even realize I was doing it at first! I think the waiter did it!" she suddenly accused.

"I thought the saying was, 'the butler did it'?" said Andrea.

"No," said Hermione impatiently, "I mean, maybe he put something in my drink or food or something."

"Hermione, if you think that, there has got to be a hundred suspects. I mean, just think how many cooks there have to be alone, not counting all the other people that work there."

"Now the only question is: Who had the motive?" said Andrea somewhat sarcastically.

"Well, Blaise was giving our waiter a hard time about the Co…about the drinks."

"So… was it the cooks, who prepared the food, the hostess who seated you, or the waiter, who brought you your food? Mmm…" continued Andrea dramatically.

Hermione rolled her eyes, but laughed.

"And why would he put it in your drink and not Blaise's?" asked Ginny.

"…A mystery," said Hermione, "has occurred."

:BACK AT THE CASTLE:

"Ron look, the carriages are starting to come back." said Harry, who had been looking out for them for the past five minutes.

"Ohhmmm." grumbled Ron, frowning at his essay and scratching his quill against his temple and succeeding in getting ink all over his face.

"Umm…Ron?"

"Yeah?" asked Ron, a little begrudgingly.

"You have something, just there."

"Oh." Rob absentmindedly rubbed his head, spreading the ink into his hair a little.

"Ron?"

"What Harry? I'm trying to study here."

"…Nevermind. I'm going to go look for Hermione. You wait for her here."

Ron mumbled an incoherent reply and Harry headed out the portrait hole.

Elsewhere in the vast castle, Hermione walked in a bit nervously. She knew she would be bombarded by questions by Harry and Ron and was afraid she wouldn't be able to lie quickly enough. Ginny and Andrea had gone off somewhere, so that it wouldn't look too suspicious, leaving Hermione completely and totally alone.

Sadly, Hermione was not a very good liar. As, being Hermione, she didn't really do it very often. She hoped that Harry and Ron wouldn't catch on. She was more worried about Harry than Ron, who in all honesty (though she scolded herself for thinking it) was a little bit on the dim-witted side most of the time.

She was just wondering what excuse she would give for her wand being broken when…

"Hermione! Hey Hermione!"

"The chipmunk did it!" squealed Hermione in a panic.

Harry stared at her, baffled. "The…what?"

Hermione turned red and immediately looked to her side, where a young second year Hufflepuff happened to be walking. "Ha ha! Funny joke eh?" she laughed cheerfully, clapping the girl on the shoulder.

The girl gave her an odd look and hurried away, and Hermione could have sworn she heard the girl muttering, "Freak."

"Catch ya later then!" Hermione yelled. She always had the best timing didn't she?

Harry shook his head and hurried toward her. "Are you okay?" he asked her worriedly, looking her up and down.

She laughed nervously. "Of course Harry, why do you ask?"

Harry scratched his head in puzzlement. "Malfoy made it sound like…"

"Like something horrible was happening to me?" finished Hermione for him.

Harry gave her a perplexed look. "Yeah. How'd you know?"

Hermione paled. Crap.

Her and her big stupid mouth.

Hermione began walking and shrugged. "Just a guess." she said breezily hoping Harry would buy it.

Harry looked at her, his emerald eyes narrowing in suspicion but before he could open his mouth Hermione beat him to it.

"So, did you have a good Hogsmeade trip? Minus the fight with Malfoy, I mean?" as soon as she said it she wanted to stuff her foot in her mouth. She hoped that Harry didn't understand her and that she'd have to repeat it, minus the second sentence. Unfortunately for her Harry had very keen hearing.

"How did you know about that?" interrogated Harry, as though he was a detective and she was sat in a chair with a bright hot light over her. Hermione unconsciously picked at her shirt collar.

"I heard about it from someone who was there." she lied.

"Who?" persisted Harry relentlessly.

"I don't know, Harry." she sighed exasperatedly. "Just answer the question."

Harry shrugged, though by no means was he finished questioning Hermione. "It was okay. Ron and I have detention with Snape for a week. Are you sure you're al-"

"Harry, I'm fine. Honestly." promised Hermione, ignoring the swarming feeling of the Bugs of Guilt, as she called it, in her stomach.

"Where were you anyway?"

"I-I was at a meeting with McGonnogal, about my course work." she said, hoping Harry would buy it. She just wanted this walk to be over. Thankfully, fate finally seemed to be on her side at the moment because they arrived at the Fat Lady's portrait and before Harry could say anymore she walked inside.

Of course then she had to go through the same ordeal with Ron, so that by the end of it all she was in a nervous sweat. She hadn't even been brave enough to mention her broken wand. "I think I'm going to go do some course work. I'll see you two in half an hour for our next class." she wanted just to get away from them and their annoying questioning. She was glad they were concerned for her but Merlin lay off a little!

Hermione flopped over on her bed, pulling the hangings around her and closing her eyes. Merlin (she seemed to be using this phrase a lot lately) was she exhausted. Her head hurt something terrible, most likely from the whole ordeal with Blaise. But, she had to admit, her revenge had been fun to get. Before she had gone completely mad that is.

She shuddered to think what would happen to her if she met Blaise in the hallway while she was wand-less. The nicest scenario she could come up with was waking up in a coma a few months later. She decided she didn't really like planning her own demise and so got up and took out her books, deciding to do her Muggle Studies essay first. She'd have to talk to McGonnogal about getting a new wand soon but at the moment she was too exhausted. She opened up her textbook and squished back against her pillow.

"As was stated in earlier chapters, for several centuries muggles have feared the existence of the witch or wizard, resulting in the horrible times during the Salem Witch Trials, as well as other accounts. (Again, see chapter three for details.)However, a little known fact is that several muggles have become more perceptible to and less troubled by magic. In fact, many try to practice it themselves. Though their magic is different than ours and to us would be called, 'a great waste of time', it is very real to them. Those who practice it are most popularly called, Wicca, of the Wiccan religion. This religion usually involves some form of goddess worship. However, although we live in a more accepting age, these poor muggles are often viewed as Satan worshippers and may be shunned by their society. It is unfortunate really, but it just goes to show…"

Hermione found this rather interesting and read the chapter very carefully, making sure to take explicit notes.

Blaise was in the Slytherin dormitories, waiting for the unsuspecting Malfoy's return. He had long since ripped of the shirt and thrown it into the fire. Watching it burn had been the best thing he had done all day. He was so glad that the trip to Hogsmeade was over.

But the bad thing was, he could still remember how it had felt when Hermione had kissed him. As much as he tried to push these terrifying thoughts away, he couldn't. He hoped, prayed, that it was only because a.) he was a guy and/ or b.) it was a kind of trauma that caused a little while to get over, and maybe some extensive therapy sessions. Of course he wouldn't be talking about it to anyone. He couldn't even bring himself to think what it would be like if it got out.

Oh, the horror.

The stone door concealed in the wall stood open, and Draco stepped in, carrying a black silk tie-string bag. Blaise jumped off the couch as though it had been on fire, and charged at Malfoy, pointing his wand at his face.

"Draco bloody Malfoy I am going to murder you!" he yelled, pushing Draco roughly back against the wall. The few people in the common room cried out in alarm.

"What the hell Zabini!" yelled Draco, shoving Blaise away roughly.

"Do you have any idea what I've been through today?" he yelled, spit flying in Malfoy's face.

"Good God Zabini, say it don't spray it." Draco said disgustedly, wiping his face with his hand, "And what are you so upset about? You should be thanking me right about now."

"Thanking you? Thanking you?" exclaimed Blaise, incensed. He was this close to hexing Draco into oblivion.

"Yes. You should be." said Draco, giving Blaise a smug look. He was pleased to see people in the common room were watching them curiously. "Or how else how would you have gotten these?" he handed Blaise the bag.

Blaise tore it open and looked inside, his look of confusion replaced by a smirk of triumph as he looked at Malfoy. "How did you get this?" he asked in disbelief.

"What does that matter? I have connections. The important thing is: it is now in our possession, and nobody knows a thing about it. The mudblood's life is as good as over."

Blaise's eyes danced with revenge. Two could play at this little game, but only one could win.

"Hermione Granger, Game Over." he whispered.

**Oooh another cliff hanger! Not my best chapter, but it'll do.**


	5. Wands and Weasleys

**Get ready, this chapter will leave you feeling shocked.**

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter is not mine.**

**Deranged Banshee**

**Wands and Weasley's**

Harry and Ron were in the Gryffindor common room, sitting in front of the fire. Ron was sweating, though Harry knew it was not the cause of the heat of the flame.

"Ron, just tell her."

"I can't."

"If you don't soon, then I will."

Ron glared at him.

"I'm completely serious Ron. I mean, you've known this for, like what, at least a few weeks, if not before, which I had a feeling you knew then too. Point is, you have to be a man and tell her."

"I should never have told you." he grumbled.

Harry smiled smugly. "So you'll tell her?"

Ron chortled.

"Ron, come on! If you don't want to come out and say it then do it another way. You could, um, write a letter, sing a song-"

"Are you mad? She'll have my head. It'll give her, like, nightmares or something."

Harry rolled his eyes at his friend's foolish assumptions. "Ron come on you're going to have to do it sooner or later."

"Says who?"

"Says me."

Ron folded his arms, stubborn. "You're not my mother." he grumbled under his breath.

"Hey guys, ready to head to class?"

Harry and Ron looked up at Hermione, who had her satchel secured around her 

shoulders.

"Sure, we've got Charms next right?" said Harry, slipping his own book bag over his shoulder. "I think we're reviewing all day today." Harry looked over at Ron, who was still sitting on the couch. "Coming mate?" he asked.

Ron shook his head, looking somewhat crestfallen. Because, really, why couldn't he miss Potions or something. "Can't, I've got an appointment with McGonnogal."

"Oh no!" squealed Hermione, hand flying to her mouth. She had been planning on ditching Harry and Ron halfway to their lesson on the pretext of forgetting her notes and then going to her Head of House to discuss the issue with her wand. Charms was the one class she was over over exceeding in and the one she felt would be okay to miss for the day. Not to mention her wandless existence would no doubt get her into trouble with Professor Flitwick.

Ron gave her a look. "Why is that so terrible?" asked Ron, a little defensively. "You had an appointment with her too. Everyone does."

"What? Oh…yeah I know. I just, I needed to talk with her about something."

"Great!" said Ron brightening up, "You can come with me! Maybe she won't yell at me as much with you there."

"I-really-okay."

"See you two later than." said Harry as they headed out the portrait hole and headed their opposite ways.

The walk to Professor McGonnogal's office was an uneventful one. Hermione was thinking feverishly about how to talk to Professor McGonnogal about her business without Ron becoming suspicious.

Ron looked at her strangely, wondering if she was going completely nutters. Her face was red and he could hear her mumbling things under her breath that he could only catch little snippets of. "…that's just stupid…because obviously he had to go do that, stupid bigoted arse…fail the school year…"

Hermione must have noticed Ron's expression because of the comment she sent his way. "What?"

Ron shook his head bemusedly. "I didn't say anything."

"Well here we are." declared Hermione.

"Good deduction, Captain Obvious."

"In you go." chirped Hermione, giving him a little push toward the door.

"Aren't you coming in too?" asked Ron a little pleadingly.

"Oh, I don't think so."

"Come on, please Hermione? I don't want to go in there alone. McGonnogal hates me."

"I highly doubt that and I don't see how my presence is going to change that fact."

"She likes you. I mean, obviously, all the teachers do. If you're there you could talk me up a little and maybe get her to lay off my back." he said it as though she was a fool not to see it.

Hermione sighed.

"Please Hermione." whined the redhead, sounding very much like a two year old.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Fine."

Ron turned around with a triumphant gleam in his eyes and knocked on the door.

"Enter." called the forbidding voice of their Transfiguration Professor. "Ah Mr. Weasley right on time, well that's certainly a start. And Miss Granger, very nice of you to drop by. Though I thought we discussed that your coursework meeting would be next Wednesday." Professor McGonnogal shot her an intrigued look.

Hermione closed her eyes and breathed deep, trying to ignore the obvious looks Ron was giving her. "Actually Professor, there was something I needed to talk with you about."

"Alright then, but you'll need to wait outside."

"Shecanstay!" said Ron quickly, and as though the continuing existence of the world itself depended on it.

"I'm afraid not Mr. Weasley. These meetings are private. Miss Granger, if you would, you can take that extra chair if you like. We may be a while."

Hermione nodded and gave a sympathetic look to Ron, who was giving an expression akin to something like that a lost puppy would have.

Hermione scooted the chair against the wall and sat down, contemplating just how she 

would get out of that one. She had clearly told her two friends that she had been with McGonnogal earlier that day. She could almost hear the fight they would have. Shouting's back and forth about lies and deceit, betrayal of trust, and other ghastly things that Hermione didn't like having anything to do with.

Blaise sat in Charms, noticing Hermione's empty seat. It wasn't that he was noticing Hermione in that way. Because, really, ew He had just been contemplating on how best to use the black-mail against her he had received and his eyes had automatically wandered to her seat.

He wanted it to be a big blow, one that no one would forget soon. At first he though about just handing it out to random people, when it would no doubt spread like wild-fire through the confines of the castle walls, but then he thought of a much more wicked, Slytherin-ish type plan. He would show her he had the information, and then make her be his personal slave, threatening to release it unless she did exactly what he wanted. The never-ending list included things such as, his course-work, his daily chores, polishing his shoes, ironing his robes, etcetera etcetera. And then, when he got tired of her groveling at his feet, he would release the information anyway.

It was a low blow, even by Blaise's standards, but what did he care? After all, she was only a lowly, filth mudblood.

And he would be seen as the Slytherin genius!

It was quite a while later by the time the door to the Head's office opened again. During the long wait Hermione had heard many shouts of, "That's not fair!" and "Watch it Weasley!" So that when Ron finally opened the door he was looking positively murderous and mouthing obscenities.

"Didn't go so well huh?" asked Hermione gently.

"So nice of you to notice." said Ron sarcastically, though Hermione knew his anger wasn't directed at her. He was literally shaking in anger. "The old, stinking, banshee, hag-"

"Mr. Weasley I am not so old nor is my hearing so bad that I am deaf to your pleasant comments about me," called their Professor curtly.

Ron turned redder in the face, if that was even possible. "Sorry Professor." he mumbled without turning around. To Hermione he added. "I'll wait for you." and slumped moodily into the chair she had occupied seconds earlier.

Hermione walked in to Professor McGonnogal's office, the woman looking rather flustered and annoyed. "Umm…professor," she began uncertainly, starting to close the door.

"Oh no dear, leave it open. Goodness knows this castle is stifling. You would have though that the fall and winter months would have cooled it down a bit. But no. And Albus still hasn't sought after getting some air conditioning. I keep telling him…"

"Actually Professor, this is a rather private matter." said Hermione nervously.

"Close the door then and have a seat," said the aging witch, giving Hermione a slightly concerned look.

Hermione nervously sat down. She could almost hear Ron pressing his ear against the door. "Well, you see, the thing is, I need a new wand."

"What happened to the one you have?"

"It's broke." she fished the pieces out of her pocket and held them in front of her.

McGonnogal eyed her sternly. "You really should learn to be more careful with your things Miss Granger. Especially your wand, it's considered your life-line. Especially in these troubled times."

"I know," said Hermione apologetically. "I'm so clumsy, I fell on the steps on my way to class and it snapped in half." she laughed nervously. It was such a pathetic lie. She was going to get busted, and then she'd have to explain everything.

McGonnogal sighed. "I suppose I'll have to let you go to Diagon Alley then to get a new one. Unfortunately the Headmaster is out on business at the moment, but I don't think he'd mind. You can take Mr. Weasley with you, since the both of you are absent from class anyways. Lord knows he'll certainly be happy about that." she said more to herself then to Hermione.

She believes me. She actually believes me!

"Why does Ron have to come with me?"

"Well, I obviously can't let you go out there alone can I? Not when you're defenseless and all that. If you like I can have Professor Snape go with you. He's free for the time being and I'm sure he'd love the trip." she offered as she scratched out a note to Dumbledore and a pass to leave Hogwarts.

"Ron's perfect!" squeaked Hermione. She could swear she saw the corners of the professor's mouth twitch as she led them to the door.

Ron looked up as they walked out. The Professor snapped her fingers at him. "Weasley, come." It was obvious she was still annoyed with him.

"What am I, your dog?" he grumbled, following them and wondering what on earth he could have done now. He tried to talk to Hermione but the witch was pointedly ignoring him as well. "Women." he growled n quiet frustration.

"What are we doing here?" he asked when they stopped in front of the gargoyles. Was he getting expelled? His throat immediately went dry and his stomach twisted in sickening, unpleasant knots. He tried to protest but the dryness of his throat would allow him only to make a rather odd scratchy sound, earning him a couple of strange looks.

Their Professor stepped in front of the gargoyles. "Drooble's Gum," she said clearly. The gargoyles slid aside and she turned to the two students. "I trust you two to do what needs to be done and get back here quickly. If you're not back in three hours I'll send someone after you and you will not like the consequences. Leave this note on Headmaster Dumbledore's desk."

Ron looked at McGonnogal as though she had sprouted two extra heads.

Hermione nodded solemnly and pulled Ron onto the stairs as the woman began to walk away. "I'm sorry to have to pull you out of class for this Ron." she apologized.

"Hermione, there will never be a time when you have to apologize for that."

Hermione laughed as she opened the door and walked over to Dumbledore's desk, setting down the note and looking around the intriguing office with interest.

"So, what are we doing any way?"

"Going to Diagon Alley. I need a new wand and McGonnogal said you have to come with me." she answered in response to Ron's confused look.

Ron looked surprised. "Don't you have yours?"

"Yes Ron, I just got bored with my old one--of course I don't have it. It got broken when I fell on the stairs."

"Ha!" said Ron, giving a whoop of triumph.

"What?" asked Hermione, rather annoyed at his making fun of her.

"You broke your wand! I'm not the only one anymore!"

Hermione rolled her eyes and handed Ron some Floo powder, who accepted it and stepped into the fire hearth, still grinning broadly.

"Diagon Alley!" he yelled, disappearing in flame.

Hermione soon followed. She landed in the grate on her bum and gave a moan. "I really needed to work on my landing." she groaned and Ron held out a hand to help her up.

They began the way to Ollivanders, chatting whatever they chatted about. Both were glad to see that the streets were not as crowded as they usually were during the few weeks before school. It was much easer to navigate their way between the buildings.

"So what exactly did Professor McGonnogal tell you?" asked Hermione when she felt it was safe to talk about it.

Ron's eyes darkened tremendously and Hermione gasped. "I'm, I'm sorry. I didn't mean-"

"She…banned…me…from…the next…Quidditch match…" he said brokenly, sparks emitting from the wand he held in his hand.

Hermione's eyes widened. "That's horrible." she said kindly, giving his an awkward one-armed hug. "But why?" Though in the back of her mind she couldn't really see what Ron was so upset about. After all it was only one game. But then, Ron was like the NUMBER ONE FAN of the sport. Missing a game was among the worst mortal sins he could commit.

"She said my grades were too low. The old hag! Nobody cares about History of Magic anyway, or Potions…"

"What do you have in there?"

Ron mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like, T.

"Ronald Bilius Weasley!" Hermione scolded. "I can't say I blame her. Your studies are very important!"

Ron gave her the look of death.

Hermione changed her tact top speed. "Well, don't worry, you'll be able to keep me company this way! It gets kind of lonely sitting in the stands all by myself all the time."

"Yeah, I guess." said Ron, though his face still resembled a rain cloud.

"It's really fun though." Hermione insisted fervently, determined to make her friend happy. "Especially when you get to see the look on Malfoy's face when he realizes that Harry's caught the Snitch before him for the hundredth time."

Ron's face brightened a little at this. He actually smiled.

Good go Hermione. Good go.

"Maybe I'll be able to send a spell at him or something and knock the bloke of his broom." he said enthusiastically.

Hermione gave a smile, though made a mental note that she would never let such cheating happen.

"Er…Hermione, can I ask you something?"

Something about the way Ron's face had suddenly taken on a rather solemn look made her throat dry up and her heart beat abnormally fast. "Sure." she croaked nervously.

"What did McGonnogal mean when she meant your coursework appointment was next week? I thought you said that you went to it today when we were at Hogsmeade?" his face lit up in sudden realization. "And Harry saw you return with everyone else, and if you miss the carriages that take you there you're not allowed to leave anyways. And I know you didn't talk to McGonnogal just before we left because Seamus had been in there and he told me so…and he said she wasn't taking anyone else while the Hogsmeade trip was going on. And like I said, you couldn't have left early because Harry saw you arrive with everyone else." he pointed an accusing finger in her face, and said, with a slight sign of hurt, "You lied to us Hermione!"

Hermione went very pale and her stomach swarmed with the wrath of the Guilt Bugs. She looked down at her feet and brushed her hair out of her eyes with sweaty hands. Today Bad Luck seemed to have it in for her. It should get, like, a golden trophy, or maybe a black one, since that would obviously suit it better.

"I did not lie." said Hermione firmly, the feeling in her stomach worsening tenfold.

_LIAR! YOU LIAR!_

Hermione pushed the voice out of her head. She was working on a believable cover story to tell Ron. He could be unbelievably dense at times, but when he figured something out, he could easily put two and two together after that and sniff out conspiracy from a mile away. It was rather frightening really.

"Well you certainly didn't tell the truth." Ron countered.

"Ron, look, we're at Ollivander's. Could we not talk about this just now? I want to get this done. I promise I'll tell you everything once I've purchased my wand."

She had lied--again. But she didn't have time to deal with this right now. She had things she needed to get done. She wanted to stop off at the supply shop down the street and 

buy some more parchment and quills before she ran out and time was of the essence. She didn't know how long finding a wand would take and wanted to get it done as quickly as possible. She only hoped Ron wouldn't be breathing down her neck the whole time as he walked in behind her.

About forty five minutes later they exited the shop, Hermione holding her new holly wand. It felt foreign in her hand and she didn't really like the feeling but she decided she'd have to get used to it. It's not like she had a choice anyways. She looked at her watch.

"Ron, if you don't mind, I need to pick up a few quills. You can wait outside if you like."

He hadn't yet asked her about the whole Hogsmeade incident and she was hoping that he had forgotten. Lord knows she wasn't stupid enough to bring it up again, especially not when she was so immensely bad at lying.

"No, I'll come with you. You're not getting out of telling me what happened today Hermione."

Damn. Foiled again.

Hermione sighed. "Well, alright, but don't laugh okay? Oh, this is so embarrassing. I did go to Hogsmeade village today, but I was, um, hanging out with some other people."

"Who?"

After a moment's hesitation Hermione answered, "A study group. I said don't laugh Ron! We met up in a bookstore and discussed our studies, posed questions, that sort of thing. Oh, is it really that funny Ronald?" she asked a little exasperatedly.

"It's pathetic actually." he said, chuckling. He immediately realized it was the wrong thing to say. Hermione was giving him a look that clearly said, 'If I wouldn't go to Azkaban…'

Ron stopped laughing at once. "I didn't mean it like that." he said quickly. "It's just so like you."

"And what exactly is that supposed to mean?" asked Hermione haughtily, frowning at him.

"I don't mean it like that," he repeated, clearly digging himself a hole, "I just meant, it suits you."

"All you're doing is repeating yourself."

"Look," said Ron, sighing and scratching his head in agitation, "All I'm saying is that- how can I say this without you hexing me? Okay, I guess I'll say it like this: it's like Snape and spooky places, and you and learning."

Hermione looked at him, baffled. "Huh?"

"Well, I can't be in a scary place, like in a haunted house or something, and not think, 'Hey, I wonder where Snape is?' and I can't think of a classroom or studying or anything like that, without you popping into my head too. It just…fits you know. It's kind of like, you can't have one without the other, and if you do, the world will end or something and everything will stop making sense… Not that I think about you every time I'm studying or anything." he added quickly, now looking slightly harried.

Hermione studied Ron a few moments. She had never thought him capable of saying anything even remotely deep. Definitely nothing beyond, 'Hey 'Mione, can you check this homework for me? Thanks, man.' And the fact that he had proved her wrong made her smile.

"Oh Ron, that was so incredibly sweet of you." said Hermione, giving him a hug.

Ron blinked. "Anytime." he breathed a sigh of relief, happy that Hermione had understood what he said, because he sure had no idea. But he still had one thing bugging him. "Hermione, can I ask you just one more thing?"

"Maybe." said Hermione warily, her guard up once more.

"If Malfoy or someone did do something…?"

"Then you and Harry would be the first ones to know." said Hermione with a note of finality in her voice as they walked into the store.

And thus, their trip to the Alley had ended, and Ron, Harry, and Hermione were in the library, all thanks to our favorite brunette of course, who had dragged the two of them down there to study. Never mind that it was the only break they had for the rest of the night and the weather was warm and peaceful. At least today their break was rather longer than usual because of a meeting the teachers had to go to. Though maybe that wasn't necessarily a good thing.

At the present Hermione had her nose buried in a book and her hand was flying across the parchment, taking rapid notes. It amazed Harry and Ron that her hand could fly so fast yet her writing still come out so neat and tidy. Ron was drawing Quidditch plays on parchment and giving Harry ideas for game moves in hushed whispers. Several of them involved different ways of knocking Malfoy of his broom.

Harry involuntarily picked at his shirt collar, as it was starting to get rather warm. They had chosen a place in the back of the library. It was away from all the known Snogging Shelves, yet still had a nice, private atmosphere. A large window was in front of it, letting in rays of concentrated sunlight, and it gave them a view of the lake down on the grounds. He saw happy, care-free students wading in the shallows and his heart gave a pang of jealousy. He wished just once that Hermione could forget about her ambition for the three of them to graduate with over the top grades.

"Blimy! It feels like an oven in here! Are they trying to kill us?" complained Ron loudly.

"Professor McGonnogal did say the castle needed air conditioning," supplied Hermione, squinting her eyes at the sun. "It probably wasn't a very good idea to pick a table so close to the window."

"Ya think? I'm going to take a nap, wake me up when we're ready to leave."

Hermione shook her head and smiled at Harry, going back to her studying.

A few minutes later Ron's snores filled the room, or more aptly, as the library was so big and not even Ron's bulldozer -like snores could have penetrated through all the shelves, their area. Harry had taken out one of his of his own text books and was practicing some of the spells in it. He got the hang of it pretty quickly and so got rather bored. After a few minutes of silence he began feeling particularly antsy and could stand it no longer. He stood up abruptly, his chair scraping loudly against the floor.

Hermione's head snapped up and she gave Harry a stern glance. "Sorry." he whispered apologetically.

"Oh, are we leaving then?" asked Ron groggily, stretching and also starting to get up. His bright red hair was slightly tousled from slumber, though Hermione thought it looked rather endearing.

"No. But you two can go, if you're bored. I'll see you in class."

"anksh her-i-knee." yawned Ron, standing up. "We'll save you a seat, if we can."

Hermione nodded her appreciation as the boys walked away.

Ron and Harry walked down the hall, on their way from the kitchens. They agreed it was always interesting seeing Dobby, especially with the way he acted around Harry.

"You really should have taken those fifty chocolate cup cakes he offered to make for you." said Ron, his mouth watering slightly at the thought. "It's not like you would have 

been taking advantage of him. He loves doing things for you."

"Maybe. But Hermione would probably confiscate them all and say they were bad for our health or something."

"Good point. Man, I really wish she wasn't so uptight about stuff like that."

"Her parents are dentists," said Harry, "That probably has something to do with it."

Ron nodded. "I bet you she grew up without sweets. Can you imagine?" he asked, looking petrified at the very thought.

Harry laughed, and was nearly knocked over by something colliding with his chest. Before he could even utter a word of surprise however, a piece of paper had fallen into his hands and someone was quickly sprinting away, shouting, "Been handing this out to random people in the halls. Bet you never knew your little mudblood friend was involved with this sort of thing!" he cackled, speeding away. It didn't take much of a brain to deduce that the student was from Slytherin.

Well it might have, if you were Crabbe or Goyle or someone like that.

Harry and Ron stared at the figure growing fainter and fainter and then looked at the object in Harry's hand. It was a piece of parchment that said 'Give to Hermione Granger.' Underneath it were some strange little symbols.

"I think those are Runes." said Harry, pointing. "I've seen Hermione studying them in the common room before. I don't know how to read them but I'm sure Hermione does." he opened the letter to reveal more strange symbols, all arranged in neat rows. "This doesn't make any sense." he said.

Ron looked away from the mysterious letter as something caught his eye. He looked down, eyes widening as he bent to pick it up. It must have fallen out of the letter. "Mate, you have got to see this."

Harry looked over at Ron, who was staring at something with wide eyes. Harry moved over behind Ron so that he could see what his friend was looking at and could feel his own eyes widening as well. "Oh my God."

But before they could proceed to stand in several second's shocked silence, as people usually have a tendency to do such things when learning things they could have never thought probable or even at all possible in this life time or any other, they heard a scream, and a Ravenclaw, third year by the look of it, came running towards them.

"F-fire!" she breathed, eyes wide in panic, "the east wing's on fire!"

Shit.

The library was in the east wing.

Hermione was still in the library.

Shit shit shit shit shit.

Ron stuffed the object in his pocket and they sprinted down the corridor, hearts feeling like they were trying to fight their way out of chests.

Hermione blinked. Her head felt heavy and her nose and eyes stung. She must have fallen asleep. Oh well, someone would come to wake her when it was time for class. And if they didn't, well, she was feeling rather wild today. Who said she couldn't just skip class? She sighed happily and closed her eyes again, nestling deeper against the pages of the text book she had fallen asleep on. Who knew that Arithmancy, An Intermediate Understanding Of could be so comfortable? The sunlight was brighter and hotter than ever, making her even drowsier. A crackle of thunder was heard in the distance.

A putrid smell suddenly filled Hermione's nostrils and she wrinkled her nose. She imagined it smelled something like Snape's hair. She put her hand in front of her nose, hoping that whatever, or whoever, smelled would leave soon. Her eyes snapped open as she heard a faint scream. And then she let out a bloodcurdling scream of her own.

Bright, intense orange flames danced around her, sucking in the air she breathed. She sniffed and smelled that putrid smell again. Smoke. It was surrounding her, making her choke. Scolding herself for being such a dim-wit and not recognizing the danger sooner, she stood up, her chair flying backwards across the floor as she drew her wand.

"Aguamenti!" she screamed at the top of her voice, nearly choking as the smoke entered her lungs. But the measly stream of water that poured from the end of her wand was barely enough to put out a candle. Why hadn't she practiced with the wand? _Oh Hermione you really are a fool!_

But why had no one come and gotten her? Oh yeah, that's right. Probably because she had chosen the most desolate and lonely corner of the library. Well, thought Hermione morbidly, all of your friends' warnings proved to be right. Your excessive studying is going to kill you.

The flames heat was intensifying by the second, until Hermione could almost feel the orange and yellow arms crawling across her skin, singeing her robes and taking her life in the cruelest way imaginable. She tried to remember the spell that witches and wizards had used to escape the feeling of burning during the Salem Witch Trials but couldn't. The fire was almost fully encircling her now, taunting her with the narrow 

escape it provided. 'Come on,' it seemed to be saying, 'make a run for it. But be careful not to get trapped between any falling bookshelves.'

Hermione looked behind, and saw the window. Her only possible escape. She ran over to it and threw it open, looking out into the grounds below. The air outside that filled her lungs was humid and moist, a very big change from the Sahara type climate that had inhabited it a moment ago. A crackle of thunder sounded in the distance, promising rain. A crowd of ant-sized people were staring up at her from very far below. There went the brilliant plan of jumping out the window. She saw a pipe and thought briefly about scaling the wall, but realized that she wasn't Lara Croft and that if she fell she wouldn't be able to start all over again.

Hermione turned back around, facing her oncoming demise, and closing her eyes. If she was going to die, she didn't want to witness her own death. She even wondered if maybe she should sit down. That way she wouldn't have to deal with the added pain in her knee-caps as she fell to the floor. The flames were really almost touching her now, and the air was thick and cloudy with smoke, making it impossible to see a thing. She couldn't open her eyes now even if she wanted to. Her knees were shaky and jell-o like and she made her way weakly over to her chair, feeling the way with her hands and sitting stiffly down on it. Her nose stung something terrible and she had thoughts of Ron and Harry. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she prayed they, and her other friends, were alright. Somewhere in the back of her mind she thought she could hear rain starting to fall softly, though it could just have been in her head, giving her those last, crazy bouts of thought that she figured people must get when they died in such horrible ways. Flames began to lick her legs as she sat in the chair and screamed piteously. The only comforting thought she could think was, _It'll all be over soon_.

And with those last thoughts everything became dark.

**I hate how it almost always seems like Ron is immensely slow, so I decided to have him be a little bit smarter and quicker. I actually like Ron's character and rarely ever see him written about, so I decided to do that in this fic**

**Interesting HP Trivia: In the movie Captain Thunderpants, Rupert Grint (Ron W.) and the actor that plays Goyleappears**


	6. Storm

**It's a long chapter this time. So long. So very very long.**

**In my story, Blaise is white, with raven hair. It's just the way I've been imagining him. I've never really known if he truly is white though. But you can imagine him how you want.**

**READ NOTE AT THE BOTTOM! VERY IMPORTANT!**

**Deranged Banshee**

**Storm**

The room was white. So white. And clean. Very clean. Harry would have even eaten off the floor in there. But at the moment food was the last thing on his mind. He had only eyes for his friend. As he held her hand he felt her coldness emanating through her fingers, making him grip her fingers harder, trying to establish some sort of warmth in her small, frail body. Ron sat on the other side of her, oddly silent and staring at his sneakers. Every once in a while he'd glance at her then look away, a line of worry etched on his face.

The white covers were pulled up to her chin, exposing only her arms and shoulders, and a few minor burns and bruises. A large bandage had wrapped around her head, and there was a stitch on her cheek. The sheets covered her legs, which were the worst injured part of her anatomy. The fire had left angry red burns that would almost certainly leave scars. Her black uniform shoes were completely ruined.

Harry's gaze traveled again to her face. Her eyes were closed, and she was breathing peacefully, serenely. He thought it ironic that she could be so calm and stoic. If it was him he imagined he'd be crying out in pain.

He looked to his left, at the bed behind him. Another student was laying there. His charred robes lay at the foot of his bed. Harry could just make out the raven eagle through the soot. He too was badly burned. A few of his friends were positioned around him as well. Another uninjured Ravenclaw girl, whom Harry guessed was his girlfriend, was crying softly and moving his blonde hair out of his face.

Yet another body, this one of a girl, lay straight across from the Ravenclaw group. This person also had a small group of friends surrounding them. This miserable scene could be seen at many beds in the ward. Thankfully no one had died.

So far as Harry knew.

"She'll be all right." said Ron, more for himself than his friend's benefit. He was looking at Hermione again with an expression that said he had stated a cold hard fact. That he absolutely refused to believe otherwise. Because, the otherwise just wasn't an option. 

Plain and simple. Hermione had to be alright.

Harry didn't say anything. Because really, what could he say?

Hermione wasn't doing well. He knew that much, and Ron knew that much. Oh, the Healers said she would be fine. They said it would only take a few days and a little rest for her to recuperate. But really, what were words?

Words couldn't heal, at least not physically.

Ron suddenly stood up gruffly, "I-I'm going to get some tea. You want?"

Harry shook his head and Ron left, taking no notice of the other occupants of the room and staring determinedly ahead, his face set.

Dumbledore had owled the parents about two hours ago. They would probably come flocking in soon. He wondered if Hermione's parents would be able to find St. Mungo's. He hoped a kind wizarding couple would help them, or that Dumbledore had left directions.

His eyes traveled to Hermione for the umpteenth time that night. She was still unconscious. The healers said she was in a mild coma as a result of hitting her head. Mild coma his ass. When it came to friends, no sort of such an injury could be considered 'mild'. It could be considered 'monumental.' It could be considered 'extremely bad.' It could even be considered 'death-defying.' But never could it be considered 'mild.' The word was just too…too easy and quick to degrade seriousness.

Ron came back a few minutes later, holding a Styrofoam cup in his hands. "Parents are starting to arrive." he said quietly. "I saw a couple checking in. And they have a reporter here. Don't worry it's not Skeeter, some old bloke. He looks old enough to be Dumbledore's granddad." he took a sip from his cup, blowing uselessly on the lid.

Just as Ron said, a young looking couple burst in a moment later, rushing to a bed near the front of the ward, far from where Harry, Ron, and Hermione were stationed. Hushed cries could be made out as the parents of the girl fussed over her and the friends backed away slightly. Harry looked toward the door as something caught his eye. The green and silver robes the figure wore were slightly singed, but not by any means ruined beyond repair. Harry's emerald locked with the deep blue of the person he was supposed to hate but now owed a debt of gratitude to. However unfair it was, this person had saved Hermione's life, and for that Harry was extremely grateful.

Harry nodded his head at the boy, trying to bestow an expression of appreciation on him. The Slytherin stared back with indifference, giving only the slightest nod to show he had seen the gesture. He then turned on his heel, aware of Harry still watching him, and dissapparated, the rumble of thunder masking the faint sound his disappearing act made.

Blaise apparated into a dark, damp alleyway. Rain fell hard and fast around him, pounding out a steady beat on his head. The drops created ripples in the puddles along with his feet as he dashed under the roof of a building for cover. He shivered, rubbing his arms. He was still dressed in his Quidditch uniform. He'd need to change if he didn't want to attract muggle attention. The streets were deserted, but that didn't mean they would stay that way. He looked up and down for a shop he could go into.

The shops were dark and the street was mostly deserted, lit only by a streetlamp at either end of the sidewalk. Blaise took out his wand and held it hidden in his sleeve. Being prepared was instinct, especially at night. He didn't want be caught off guard.

He walked down the street at a brisk pace, eyes searching for what he needed. His eyes landed on a shop across the street with dummies in the window dressed in street clothing. He hurried over, not bothering to watch for cars. He looked in the darkened window, his breath misting the glass slightly. The shop held jeans and tees. In other words, plain muggle clothes.

Blaise walked up to the door and jiggled the handle, using an unlocking spell when it didn't open.

"Lumos." he whispered as he shut the door softly behind him. He looked around the small store with interest, filtering through the racks. A few minutes later he had manage to find some jeans and a black tee. He also found socks and shoes fairly easily. The last souvenir he took for his excursion was a small gym bag, which he put his wet clothes into. He then conjured an umbrella and shrunk the pack before exiting the store. He didn't bother paying. What would muggles do with wizarding money anyway?

He set of down the street once more, looking for a place to eat and rest. He didn't much fancy going back to that god forsaken castle at the moment. Now that he was dressed, his mind kept nagging him and reminding him of the events that had occurred only hours earlier. One emotion that kept hitting him in the head was how worried he had felt for Granger. He gritted his teeth against the cold as he tried to push these bothersome thoughts away and walked into a late night fast-food restaurant.

Minutes later he sat with a chicken sandwich and fries. (He had used a confundus charm to make the muggles think he paid.) As he looked at the plastic cup with the word, 'Coke' in scrawled on it in flowing white letters, he couldn't help but be reminded of Hermione. And with no one to distract him from the annoying thoughts his brain was forcing him to have, he thought about what had happened earlier that day at Hogwarts.

He had been playing Quidditch with Parkinson, and had been doing fairly good too. He had scored 6 to 2, and the girl was starting to get very mad. It was rather funny really. She eventually quit and Blaise was quite happy to fly around the grounds. The wind rushing through his hair had felt good, and made up for the sweltering humidity and heat present in the air. He closed his eyes, savoring the feeling for all it was worth.

Screams suddenly caught his attention and his eyes snapped open immediately, afraid that maybe he was heading straight for a wall or something. Confusion hit him as he saw only open space before him. That's when he looked down to see a large crowd gathered outside the window to the library and his eyes widened. Smoke was billowing out of that window as well as others surrounding it. He looked over and saw teachers rushing towards the entrance. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a figure bouncing up and down frantically. A girl was waving to him and pointing to the library window over and over again, shouting things that Blaise couldn't hear. Luckily he had enough intellect and after a few seconds realized that she must have seen somebody in the library.

He leaned forward on his broom towards the window, the wind and smoke stinging his eyes as he got closer. He could hear the shout from the people down below as they egged him on. He wiped a hand across his brow and slowly inched forward, trying to see a body through the thick smoke. He flew in and jumped off the broom, shouting water spells left and right off his wand, though it calmed the raging flames only slightly.

He finally found what he was looking for and gasped, before quickly getting over himself and casting a water charm on her as well. He wanted to scream at her for being such a bloody idiot but decided he'd wait until later. Her singed robes were charred and blackened, and angry red burns covered her legs. There were also already a few minor burns on her arms and stomach. He cradled her small form in his arms and straddled his broom again, making his way haphazardly to the window. This was no easy feat. The fire was quickly closing in and he wasn't used to the added weight when steering his broom.

Blaise looked behind him as he tried to navigate his way out and he saw that the tail end of his broom had caught fire. In panic he flew forward at top speed and managed to give him and Granger rather large bumps. Cursing, he sent another water spell to extinguish it, and then maneuvered his broom down and out the window. Now was not the time for his flying to suddenly turn awful.

A few seconds later they were headed toward the crowd, students gasping as they saw Hermione. Blaise looked down and spotted the Charms Professor along with Madam Pompfrey a little ways off and flew toward them, cutting in front of the other students bearing friends with injuries or injuries themselves crowding around them as he landed.

The tiny professor shuffled quickly towards them, a small quill held tightly in his hand.

"Mr. Zabini, you're going to have to escort Miss Granger to St. Mungo's. This portkey should get you there. Her injuries look too serious to be taken care of here," he pushed the quill into Blaise's hand and scurried off.

The rest was history. They arrived at St. Mungo's and Hermione was carted off. Blaise had watched from outside the doors as they tended to her, a frown on his face. Why 

hadn't she tried to save herself?

After that, Potter and Weasley had arrived. He moved behind a cart so that they wouldn't see him when they neared the doors to the ward Hermione was in. He had watched her for a while, convinced that the two couldn't see him. Obviously he'd been wrong.

He moaned and held his head in his hands. He had never felt this way before, least of all about a Gryffindor. It's not that he was incapable of caring about someone or anything like that, but Slytherins were bred to care mainly for themselves. It was part of the culture.

He grunted and slid out of the booth, dumping his trash, and walked out the door, the bell jingling softly. He began walking in a random direction, not really caring where he was going. He frowned in disgust when he saw a prostitute gesturing to him enticingly. As if he would ever pay to do anything with an muggle whore.

:BACK AT THE HOSPITAL:

Ron and Harry waited outside in the waiting room as the Healers tended to their friend in an examination room. Ron held his head in his hands with fatigue. "We shouldn't have left her," he mumbled.

Harry sighed but said nothing.

Suddenly Ron's head shot up, as though he had remembered something important. Harry looked at him and Ron slowly drew something out of his pocket. He looked at Harry a moment before turning away, a question evident in his eyes.

"It can't be true, mate. I mean, it was a Slytherin who gave it to us. He probably forged it."

Ron didn't look convinced. "You'd be able to tell if a photo was forged though. Colin told me once, something about the alignment or whatever. And this looks completely original."

"Ron, come on. Hermione wouldn't do anything like that."

"Yeah, the label 'Hermione Jeane Granger, Winner of the Summer Wet T-shirt Contest' is clearly misleading. It obviously belongs to her secret twin," said Ron sarcastically. "And why am I still looking at this?" he stuffed it back in his pocket.

"Either way," said Harry resolutely, "it's none of our business what she does. We should just pretend we never saw that."

Ron looked at him incredulously. "Do you think the whole school's going to pretend? He 

gave it to other people besides us remember?"

Harry swore under his breath.

**GAH! I had no idea what to make the thing that Harry and Ron hadSo if it's cliché or anything, I apologize and welcome your suggestions.**

**Whoo this took forever, sorry about that Hope you enjoyed it!**

**Okay, so it wasn't so long. In all honesty it pretty much sucked. I didn't know what to write. But I hope you're still enjoying it. If you do still like this story, please review. Or else I won't be updating for a while. I'm completely serious. Seriously there are a lot of you reading this and getting feedback would be, like, the best ever!**

**A note to Pstibbons: I don't think I'm going to do what I said I was in this story. If I do, I can't have this scene that I really want to have in there, so you needn't worry about that anymore.**


	7. Gossip Kills

EDITED 9/29/07

**Deranged Banshee**

**Gossip Kills**

It was two weeks after the intense fire. All the students were at school once again. Hermione, miraculously, had woken up after only six days. Don't ask me how she did it. The Healers were amazed, but decided she could go back to Hogwarts. This was mostly because she had started sobbing uncontrollably and throwing things at them when they said she should stay.

Not really. She wasn't that dramatic. Though she had thrown something.

Alas, she regretted this option a little.

Ever since she had arrived back at school, Harry and Ron had stuck to her like Stink-sap. They followed her around wherever she went, and Ron even offered to carry her pack for her once. She declined his offer, having gotten a little fed up at the time. Honestly, they were treating her as though she was a piece of glass.

Don't get her wrong, a girl loves to be treated like that by a bloke, but too much is just makes them want to tear their hair out. Why, they had even taken to sleeping in her room with her. No, not in that way. They used sleeping bags. So every night, when she got into her large head girl bed, they'd scoot down into their little blue cocoons and go to sleep. Needless to say, Hermione had received many odd looks from the Ravenclaw Head Boy, Michael Stockly. Not that she could blame him. She even heard someone ask him if the three were having orgies every night.

Hermione had walked up to both of them and said, "Yeah, we are. Why don't you join in?" The look on his face was priceless. Hermione wished she'd had a camera with her.

Another strange thing that had been happening since her arrival back at Hogwarts was the way people were acting toward her. She'd walk by, and they'd start laughing, or whispering, or something to that effect. It was quite annoying, and she often times wondered if she had something on her face. Whenever she'd tried to confront them about it, however, Harry and Ron would literally drag her away, or try to pretend that there was something interesting way down the hall that they just had to go see. Thus far, Ron was the top contender for who could come up with the stupidest story: ("Hermione, look! It's a singing hippogriff!")

Hermione sighed peacefully and continued down the hall in a rather bouncy step. She took a deep breathe of the free air around her. She was finally rid of Ron and Harry for once while they went to Quidditch practice. It felt so good be alone with her thoughts. Never before had she considered solitude a luxury, but she did now. She truly did.

The sad thing though was that a visit to the library was out of the question. Most of Hogwarts had been repaired but the fire, which had been the product of a spell gone bad, had destroyed every book. The librarian had been traumatized, as had been Hermione. But she was rather glad at the same time. Even walking past what used to be her third home gave her shivers.

This brings us to another matter, the person who had saved her, aka Blaise Zabini. Harry had told her it was him who saved her, and to say she was surprised would be an understatement. She was SHELL-SHOCKED beyond belief! Who would've thought? Certainly not her, she would have thought that Zabini would add kindling or something. She still hadn't thanked him though. It's not that she hadn't tried, but she could never get to him. She'd try to after classes, but it was like he disappeared off the face of the earth.

"Hey Granger!"

Speak of the devil.

Hermione turned around in surprise as the person ran towards her. "Zabini, I want to thank-"

"Where have you been?"

Hermione stopped abruptly and gave Blaise a confused look. "Pardon?"

"I told you to meet me in the Muggle Studies corridor during break. Do you want me to leak all that information out?"

"What are you talking about?" asked Hermione incredulously.

Blaise frowned, "Didn't Potter and Weasley give you that note I wrote for you?"

"No!"

Blaise smirked. "Man, are you in for a surprise. I was wondering why-ha ha—"

Hermione looked at him warily. "What are you on about?"

Blaise just shook his head, a wide smile on his face. "Ask Potty and Weasel. In any case, I'll be around when you're ready to talk," he turned on his heel and began walking off.

"Zabini, stop!"

He turned his head as Hermione ran up to him.

"What's going on?"

"All in good time, Granger. All in good time."

"What? Hold it Zabini!"

"Granger," Blaise said in an annoyed voice, cutting her off, "the longer you stand around here trying to argue with me, the more time you're going to waste." He turned on his heel once again and stalked off, Hermione staring after him seething.

The girl turned on here heel and ran to her room, her footsteps echoing off the walls. She bowled through a group of students, not even bothering to apologize when she nearly knocked somebody over. Hermione tore into her room, looking around Harry and Ron's things to see what Blaise could have been talking about. She saw a pair of Harry's jeans on the floor, and picked them up, searching in the pockets. A scrap of paper came out with her name written on it. Hermione stared at it a moment. She didn't recognize the hand writing. It was way to neat to be Ron or Harry's. She opened it curiously and saw a bunch of runes scribbled hastily onto a parchment. Wondering why they didn't just write in plain old English, she grabbed her textbook out of her pack and proceeded to translate.

After ten minutes of scratching and scribbling, Hermione had finally decoded the note.

_I know your little secrets. That picture I handed out is only the beginning. If you don't want that perfect image you've made for yourself to be ruined, you'd better do what I say. If you don't, I release the other evidence I have against you. And I'm very certain you wouldn't want that. Meet me in the Muggle Studies corridor at nine. Don't be late. Come alone. I am going to make you pay dearly._

_Zabini._

Hermione's heart hammered, question swirling around in her mind. What picture? What evidence? Why hadn't Ron and Harry told her this?

Hermione began searching earnestly for the picture.

"Damn," she said after a few minutes of searching through the boys' things. She picked up Ron's pillow and threw it at the door in frustration.

"Oomph!" Ron stumbled backwards, the pillow having hit him in the face.

"Sorry," Hermione mumbled distractedly, digging in Ron's pocket for the gazillionth time.

"Uh—why are you looking through my stuff?" Ron gave her a suspicious look.

Hermione looked up at him, a nervous look in her eyes. "Did Blaise give you anything, 

er, that was about me?" she asked hesitantly as Harry walked into the room.

A look of recognition dawned on Ron's face, and he tried unsuccessfully to brush it off. "No. Why do you ask?"

"Don't lie Ron." She waved the runic letter in the air. "Where's the picture?"

Ron shuffled his feet, looking down at his shoes. Hermione sighed and turned her gaze to Harry expectantly.

Harry looked over at her. "We threw it away."

Hermione nodded, and took a deep breath, dreading the answer to come. "What was the picture of?"

At this, Harry and Ron exchanged uncomfortable glances.

"I'd rather not say," Harry finally mumbled, a faint blush coating his cheeks.

Hermione frowned. "Please just tell me. I don't care if it's embarrassing. I've just got to know."

Harry gave a deep sigh, glanced at Ron once more, who was pointedly not looking at either of them, and turned back to Hermione. "I think I'd better whisper it to you." He said. He knew it didn't really matter, since Ron already knew anyway. But it seemed it would make it less embarrassing for Hermione. Kind of like when you have a big bogey in your nose and someone quietly hands you a tissue. It was certainly better than someone shouting, 'HEY, YOU HAVE SOMETHINGO ON YOUR FACE!' across the Great Hall or something. Not that Harry had been planning on shouting it or anything.

Harry walked slowly over and whispered something in her ear, during which Hermione turned steadily redder, until her face was so inflamed it was as though she had bad acne, or a really bad sunburn.

"Oh my," she said, wringing her hands as Harry backed quickly away from her to stand next to Ron, waiting for her reaction.

An awkward silence filled the room. Seriously nothing could have been worse. Nothing. Hermione would have gladly welcomed Voldemort with open arms at that moment if it could have erased the moment forever. She would have served him a spot of tea and given him crumpets or biscuits or whatever the hell it is you're supposed to serve and asked him how his plan for world domination was going. There was a very good chance of that conversation going way better than this one was.

Hermione slowly looked up at Harry and Ron, trying to seem unaffected and failing miserably. "Yes, well, oh, look—" she stammered helplessly.

"You don't have to explain yourself," said Ron suddenly, "It's your own choice if you want to act like a little whore."

Hermione and Harry's eyes widened, and so, too, did Ron's as he realized what he was saying. He scratched his head awkwardly, a flustered look about him. It was the totally wrong thing to say. It was the kind of thing you'd say if you wanted to be really mean, and embarrass someone more. Ron definitely did not want that. It just slipped out. Stop looking at him like that. It wasn't his fault Hermione went and did something so degrading to herself. Mind you, he hadn't meant to spit out something so mean, but when he was annoyed, shit just siphoned out. You couldn't get mad at him for it. Well, you could, and rightfully so, but that was beside the point. It was like getting mad at a dog for barking too loud at night. Pointless.

Several seconds passed.

"I'm sorr—"

But Hermione was already out the portrait hole, leaving Ron with a none too Christian reply, tears lacing her voice. What was his fucking problem? She stomped a few paces down the corridor, bracing herself as she heard it open behind her.

"Hermione, wait!"

Hermione rolled her eyes, tears of anger and embarrassment threatening to spill over. She turned around angrily. Wasn't this the guy who hadn't defended her a moment ago?

"What? Come to call me a whore too?" Hermione spat angrily.

"No! I- Ron's really sorry Hermione!"

"Then why isn't he the one apologizing? And don't tell me he sent you."

"Well, does it matter?" asked Harry weakly.

"Of course it matters!" Hermione yelled shrilly. "If he wants to apologize properly he knows where to find me."

Harry didn't bother pointing out that she hadn't said where she was going.

"Why did you do that in the first place?" Harry asked suddenly not able to stop himself.

"None of your business," Hermione huffed. "But, if you really want to know. I didn't do it for me."

Harry gave her an odd look. "Then who…?

Hermione was silent a few seconds. "It's complicated," she finally said.

After a few seconds silence Harry gestured for her to continue.

Hermione sighed wearily. "Seriously Harry, the details would only bore you. Best to just let it go. No point in digging up the past," she laughed with no humor. "But, anyways, there's a certain someone I need to consult with. Are you coming, or are you going back to him?"

"You," Harry said quickly, relentlessly, as Hermione turned and started walking down the corridor once more. "But what do you mean by, 'digging up the past?'"

"Seriously, Harry, just let it go. It's really nothing to get all worked up over. It's over, you know. There's no point in thinking about it now is there?"

Harry was surprised to see her look suddenly sad, but the feeling was gone quick as a flash to be replaced by anger, and it didn't take Harry long to figure out why.

"Zabini!" Hermione said angrily.

Blaise and his friend walked down the corridor toward her and Harry, his friends following him. He said goodbye as his friends walked past, several of them snickering at Hermione and whispering obviously.

"Granger, Potter, beautiful evening, isn't it?"

Hermione's eyes flashed, "You are the most despicable creature I've ever had the misfortune of knowing."

Blaise smirked. "I see you found the letter and picture."

"You had no business taking that," Harry suddenly said, glaring at Blaise. "You don't have any business going into her private life."

Blaise turned to Harry, dislike evident on his face. "As you already know, we Slytherins don't give a damn about what's private and what's not. And if I were you, I'd keep my mouth shut. There's a lot about this one," he pointed to Hermione, "that I'm guessing you don't know, and you might want to find out about some of it someday."

Harry gave him a confused look.

"Don't believe him Harry, he's full of shit. I don't even know where you got that photo from, but you've got nothing else on me!"

"J…H…" Blaise said simply.

Hermione's eyes widened considerably, and then narrowed as she opened her mouth to speak, but Blaise beat her too it.

"Don't bother denying it Granger. It's your own fault for writing all about it in a stupid diary.

"How did you even get that?" Hermione asked, mortified.

Blaise just shrugged and said he didn't share his secrets with mudbloods and scarheads.

Hermione look near tears, "How can you use that as blackmail? Are you really that cruel?"

Blaise smirked down at her, "Granger, I breathe cruel. And if you don't want the whole school finding out about it, I suggest you do what I say. Now then, shall we discuss my terms?"

"Look Zabini," intervened Harry angrily, stepping in front of Hermione, "I don't know what the hell you're talking about, but I swear if you don't leave Hermione alone I will not hesitate to kill you. And I don't care if it gets me expelled."

Blaise didn't look fazed at all, "That's all very nice, Potter, but in case you didn't know, your stupid little friend deserves this."

"Stop right there Blaise!" said Hermione warningly. She did not need Harry finding out about that fiasco in Hogsmeade.

Blaise turned to Hermione, "I was right then."

"I said shut it!"

Harry watched in a confused amusement.

Blaise smirked. "I guess the trio isn't as close as everyone says, then. I wonder what Potter will do when he finds out about everything in a few seconds…which he will. Unless you do what I say."

"Fuck—you." Hermione said slowly and clearly, turning on her heel and stalking off.

"Don't be surprised when people know all about your little secret tomorrow morning then Granger!" he called after her.

Hermione wheeled around and stomped back up to Blaise, shaking with fury. She stared at him a few moments, bubbling with rage. The hall was deathly silent, and 

Blaise was a little alarmed, but he quickly recovered.

"That's what I thought."

Then Hermione did something so fabulous and awe-inspiring that there really should have been a large crowd of people to witness the spectacular event: she punched Blaise Zabini right on the nose.

**Ah, that was awesome! I hope it's better now that I edited. I hope you all liked this. Review, if you want more soon!**


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